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Undergrad Research
Working with a professor or graduate student as an undergraduate research assistant can be a very rewarding educational experience. It allows students to explore topics in which they are interested to greater depth than is possible in a classroom setting, and can lead to an interest in graduate school. UG Research Assistants typically work 5-10 hours per week, and are either paid an hourly rate or earn technical elective credit.
| The Fly Eye - Mechanics and Geometry of a Complex Living Tissue | |
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| Company: | University of Illinois |
| Location: | MechSE |
| Job Type: | Undergrad Research |
| Job Description: The eye of the fruit fly consists of over 800 separate primitive eyes, each of which has a fixed number of cells with extremely well-defined shapes. A long-standing question in biology is whether such intricate cell shapes are the product of complicated regulation processes in the cell, or whether they can be understood through simple mechanical constraints. Taking the latter view, Prof. Hilgenfeldt’s group has modeled the fly’s retina, taking into account just two effects: the natural elasticity of the cell membranes, and the strength with which the cells adhere to each other via molecules called cadherins. With only these two ingredients, one can write down a functional describing the mechanical energy of the retina. Minimizing this energy functional gives an equilibrium shape. In order to achieve that minimization, we employ a program called Surface Evolver. The extraordinary success of the model shows a quantitative accuracy rarely seen in biological systems. In order to honestly assess this accuracy, many experimental images were analyzed with Matlab’s imaging toolbox to extract lengths and angles of the structure. The experiments are conducted in the lab of Prof. Richard Carthew at Northwestern University. An undergraduate previously working on this topic was recognized as co-author on a publication in the eminent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA [1]. b cStarting with this new undergraduate research at UIUC, we will explore the genetic regulation of these retinal shapes: Prof. Carthew has mutant flies in which the concentration of adhesion molecules (cadherins) is different from the wild-type, and can be tuned in small steps. This results in noticeable changes in the geometry of the eye. The project is about (i) extracting and analyzing data from the images of mutant retinas, and (ii) verifying whether the shape changes are reflected correctly in the Surface Evolver model, when the corresponding adhesion strengths are varied accordingly. In this way, the project will both elucidate our view of cell mechanics (by providing another check of the relevant concepts), and break new ground in connecting the mutant gene expression levels to not just the cadherin concentrations, but the eventual morphology of the eye.[1] S. Hilgenfeldt, S. Erisken, and R. Carthew, PNAS 105, 907 (2008). | |
| Job Qualifications: AT LEAST ONE SEMESTER, but open-ended. CAN START NOW (APRIL 2008). MechSE undergraduates with computer skills and a desire to do research at the exciting boundary of engineering science and biology. No explicit class requirements. Familiarity with Matlab is required, and a general facility with computers. Concepts of continuum mechanics are helpful, such as those acquired in TAM 324 or TAM 445. | |
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For more information contact:
Prof. Hilgenfeldt |
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This notice was posted on 4-2-2008 by Marian Brinkerhoff. It will be removed from this list on 6-2-2008. | |