| Start Date: | 11/14/2013 | Start Time: | 3:30 PM |
| End Date: | 11/14/2013 | End Time: | 4:30 PM |
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Event Description
Andrea Liu, PhD, Hepburn Professor of Physics, University of Pennsylvania
Abstract: How can a wavefront propagate at a constant velocity in a medium that doesn't support waves? In chemical reaction-diffusion systems, travelling wavefronts of the concentration of a reaction product can arise as a nonlinear phenomenon. The signal propagates at constant velocity without decaying because it is amplified as it goes: more product is generated if there is a sufficiently high concentration of the product. I will discuss two very different biological systems--the developing embryo of the fruit fly Drosophila, and the developing heart of chicken embryos--which both exhibit wavefront propagation. In the fruit fly embryo, cell division does not occur everywhere at once across the embryo, but progresses as a wavefront across the embryo. Similarly, in the contracting embryonic heart, the heart cells (cardiomyocytes) do not contract all at once; rather, there is a wavefront of contraction that propagates across the heart. We have proposed that in both of these systems, it is not chemical concentration but rather mechanical stress that propagates as a nonlinear wavefront. Thus, I will argue that these two biological systems are examples of a new class of "mechanical reaction-diffusion" systems that are governed not by chemical reactions, but by stress-triggered generation of additional mechanical stress. |
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Location:
Disque Hall 919, S. 32nd Street and Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
Audience:
Current StudentsFaculty |
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