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Biophysics Talk Title: Who Said To Do That? Understanding Multicellular Decision Making

Allyson Sgro, Boston University
Thursday, August 8, 2019
11:30 AM-12:30 PM
CHEM 1200 Chemistry Dow Lab Map
Abstract: One of the key outstanding challenges in understanding multicellular systems is identifying what single cells tune within themselves to change population-wide behaviors. A major driver of multicellular patterns is oscillations in single-cell signaling networks, but it is unknown what features single cells naturally modulate in these oscillations to change global patterns. An ideal system for addressing this challenge exists in the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. Dictyostelium uses travelling waves of cyclic AMP as a chemoattractant between cells to drive aggregation into a multicellular state when starving. These waves originate within single cells that release cyclic AMP to the environment, and the single-cell signaling network phenomena that drive the creation of these waves are well-characterized. Using new experimental data in conjunction with an existing phenomenological model, I explore what parameters single cells can modulate to control the properties of these signaling oscillations and the patterns they coordinate.
Building: Chemistry Dow Lab
Event Type: Workshop / Seminar
Tags: Biophysics, Biophysics Program, Biosciences, Physics
Source: Happening @ Michigan from LSA Biophysics