Conveners
W1-4 Biological Physics of Organisms (DPMB) | Physique biologique des organismes (DPMB)
- Christopher Bergevin (York University)
- Andrew Rutenberg (Dalhousie University)
Much of complex biology results from interactions among a large number of individually simpler elements. Behavior of large collection of cells from microbes to stem cells are no different. In this talk I will describe how theoretical ideas from statistical mechanics are being used to understand behavior of such heterogeneous populations, focusing on two examples. In first, I will present a...
The roundworm, C. elegans is a relatively simple organism with only 300 neurons but can generate complex adaptive behavioral responses to a wide range of sensations including taste, touch, and temperature. One of the grand goals in neuroscience is to understand how neural, genetic, and biochemical circuits produce these behaviors. While a great deal of work has been done on developing tools...
The continuous electric organ discharge (EOD) of the weakly electric fish, Eigenmannia, reflects action potentials (APs) fired by the EO’s muscle-derived electrocytes. EODs enable electrosensing and communication. AP frequency is neurally controlled, with acetylcholine-gated channels (AChRs) mediating synaptic transmission. According to EOD-linked whole-fish O2...
This study examines the biomechanics of a unique style of phonation, commonly referred to as "Tuvan throat singing" (Tuva is part of Russia close to Mongolia). It is characterized by overtones (i.e., harmonics) of the the source (i.e., vibrating vocal folds) being "focused" into a single concentrated formant, which can then be manipulated in frequency. The underlying biomechanical mechanisms...
We’re all going to die, and our collective mortality rate increases exponentially with age. As we get older, we also become more frail --- which explains much of the increased mortality rate. Frailty involves multiple interacting health deficits, but can be quantitatively characterized. This has been done with traditional studies of human aging using cohorts of up to 10 000 individuals, as...
In the absence of extraneous and stochastic data artifacts, differences between X-ray diffraction snapshots of a biomolecule arise from changes in object orientation and conformation. Using the X-ray Free Electron Laser data from the PR772 virus, collected at SLAC National Laboratory, we show that a manifold embedding technique can extract the structure and map the conformational spectrum of...
