UBM Group - Investigating the Mathematical Biology of Metabolic Scaling using Manduca InSTaRs (Interdisciplinary Science Training and Research)

项目摘要- UBM集团-使用Manduca InSTaRs（跨学科科学培训和研究）研究代谢缩放的数学生物学代谢是？生命之火动物从环境中摄取食物，并将其代谢转化为所有生命过程的燃料，包括生长，维持，觅食，防御和繁殖。因此，新陈代谢的速度提供了一个生物体生活有多快的基本指标。主要地，我们感兴趣的是代谢比例的问题;也就是说，代谢率如何随着有机体的大小而变化。在超过20个数量级的大小范围内，跨越细菌和蓝鲸等不同的生物，代谢缩放呈现出一致的数学形式，称为异速生长幂律。然而，我们目前缺乏一个完整的解释，为什么模式采取的形式，它做的。为了迎接这一挑战，我们将建立一个合作小组的本科生和教师的研究人员在数学生物学研究代谢缩放的烟草天蛾幼虫，天蛾，这是熟悉的？角虫？被许多园丁称为番茄的克星。小型跨学科研究团队将使用分子，形态学和生理学方法结合数学建模和统计学来研究代谢缩放的基础因素。Manduca是研究代谢缩放的理想实验平台，因为幼虫在不到三周的时间内质量增长约10，000倍，而形态或行为没有大的变化。在实验环境中解决代谢缩放的能力提供了一个独特的机会来测试最近提出的理论来解释代谢缩放的起源，包括那些专注于分形交换表面和生物体内资源分配网络的重要性。数学生物学是21世纪世纪最令人兴奋的跨学科研究前沿之一。然而，在本科阶段，跨学科合作受到年轻研究人员有限的学科背景和持续的认知发展的挑战。通过召集学生教师团队，将生物学和数学方法的多样性应用于一个共同的模式生物，我们将吸引本科生对前沿研究有广泛兴趣，同时帮助他们对生物现象以及生物学和数学之间的界面有更全面的理解。基于竞争性的提案审查过程，六个生物学和数学专业的学生将被分成两个或三个小组，参加为期十周的暑期密集研究计划，然后在秋季海报会议上向同行，教师，家长和大学受托人进行演示。在整个学年和夏季，研究团队的互动将通过定期的小组会议来补充，这将有助于将团队项目置于上述更大的研究目标的背景下。代谢缩放为这项研究和培训计划提供了一个理想的焦点，因为它涉及多个组织层次的基本生物过程，从分子到细胞到生物体到生态系统，并且因为当前研究的这个肥沃和活跃的领域已经受益于并推进了数学和生物方法的整合。

Project Abstract - UBM Group - Investigating the Mathematical Biology of Metabolic Scaling using Manduca InSTaRs (Interdisciplinary Science Training and Research)Metabolism is ?the fire of life.? Animals take in food from their environment and transform it metabolically to fuel all living processes, including growth, maintenance, foraging, defense, and reproduction. Thus, the rate of metabolism provides a fundamental index of how fast an organism lives. Principally, we are interested in the problem of metabolic scaling; that is, how the rate of metabolism changes with the size of the organism. Across over 20 orders of magnitude in size, spanning creatures as different as bacteria and blue whales, metabolic scaling takes on a consistent mathematical form known as an allometric power law. However, we currently lack a complete explanation for why the pattern takes the form that it does. To meet this challenge, we will establish a collaborative group of undergraduate and faculty researchers in mathematical biology to study metabolic scaling in larvae of the tobacco hawkmoth, Manduca sexta, which is the familiar ?hornworm? known by many gardeners as the bane of their tomato plants. Small interdisciplinary research teams will use molecular, morphological, and physiological approaches combined with mathematical modeling and statistics to investigate factors that underpin metabolic scaling. Manduca is an ideal experimental platform for the study of metabolic scaling, because the larvae grow approximately 10,000-fold in mass in less than three weeks, without large changes in morphology or behavior. The ability to address metabolic scaling in an experimental setting provides a unique opportunity to test recent theories proposed to explain the origin of metabolic scaling, including those focused on the importance of fractal-like exchange surfaces and resource distribution networks inside organisms.Mathematical biology presents one of the most exciting interdisciplinary research frontiers of the 21st century. However, at the undergraduate level, interdisciplinary collaborations are challenged by the limited disciplinary background and ongoing cognitive development of young researchers. By convening student-faculty teams applying a diversity of biological and mathematical approaches to a common model organism, we will engage undergraduates with a wide range of interests in cutting-edge research while also helping them to develop a more integrative understanding of biological phenomena and the interface between biology and mathematics. Based on a competitive proposal review process, six biology and math majors will be grouped into teams of two or three to participate in an intensive ten-week summer research program, followed by presentations to peers, faculty, parents, and the college trustees at an autumn poster session. Throughout the academic year and summer, research team interactions will be supplemented by regular whole group meetings, which will help place team projects in the context of the larger research goals described above. Metabolic scaling provides an ideal focus for this research and training program because it involves fundamental biological processes at multiple levels of organization, from molecules to cells to organisms to ecosystems, and because this fertile and active area of current research has already benefited from and advanced the integration of mathematical and biological approaches.