Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Summer 2008

Vanderbilt University
Physics & Astronomy

Research Projects: Biological Physics

Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research
(Prof. John Wikswo)
Students will work in the development and application of micro- and nano-scale devices for instrumenting and controlling single biological cells and small cell populations. The cellular instrumentation project is working to develop and apply a new class of microscale devices that allow simultaneous recording of multiple signatures of a variety of cellular metabolic and signaling processes with sufficient bandwidth that will eventually be used to achieve stable, real-time, closed-loop external control of a single living cell. Such instrumented and controlled cells would help us answer the virtually innumerable sets of questions that will be raised by the explosion of genomic and proteomic information, and address issues as varied as using cells to identify and discriminate chemical and biological warfare agents by metabolic phenotype, the use of BioMEMS (BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems) devices to study molecular signaling associated with chemotaxis, cellular motility, angiogenesis, and metastasis; and the nature of signaling and metabolic activity during the immune response; and the associated how mechanical stimulation during cell culture alters cell morphology and physiology. Already in place are student-taught workshops in microfabrication and development of cellular instrumentation. These will be made available to the REU students enabling them to work at nano-scales that are not commonly available for hands on work by undergraduates.

Probing the Physical Forces that Drive Morphogenesis
(Prof. Shane Hutson)
Students will participate in interdisciplinary projects at the interface between physics and biology designed to probe the physical forces between cells. The action of these forces ultimately gives rise to the shape of an organism (morphogenesis). Students will investigate these forces during the embryonic development of the fruit fly. Students will have the opportunity to operate our custom laser-microsurgery workstation, which combines real-time 3D imaging via a laser-scanning confocal microscope with microsurgical capabilities via a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. By cutting the connections between individual cells in the embryo and following the subsequent mechanical response, one can solve the inverse problem to calculate the pre-incision forces between cells. Experimental projects include: quantitatively analyzing the morphogenetic dynamics occurring in specific episodes of fruit fly development, and testing hypotheses about the forces underlying these episodes by conducting microsurgical interventions. Computational projects include: automation of image-processing routines for feature extraction from 3D image sequences; modeling of native morphogenetic processes via finite element routines; and the use of finite element models for solving the inverse problem above. This project will team a physics REU student with a Vanderbilt biology student. The goal is for each student to see what interdisciplinary research is all about by collaborating with a peer from a different discipline.

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Program details:

Application deadline:
March 15, 2008

Program dates:
May 26 - July 26