EAGER: Studies in Biological Size and Shape Control

在这个项目中，PI将测试一个新的假设，即真核细胞使用波条纹计数来测量它们的长度和形状。该项目的灵感来自一项实验，该实验表明，强烈的交变电场以一种在无线电频率上共振的方式扰乱有丝分裂。PI将带来来自物理学的想法，众所周知，条纹计数是一种在大范围内稳定测量长度的方法。条纹计数工作细胞使用模拟惯性的PI假说：这是人类工程师在设计微芯片时常用的方法，也在生物学中对耳蜗的功能发挥作用。这项拟议中的研究的更大目标是识别生命的计量棒。这项拟议研究的学术价值可能会导致对细胞调控机制的根本新理解。一项潜在的发现，即细胞可以并确实通过条纹计数来测量长度，将开启我们对形态发生和生物学总体理解的新篇章，并可能导致医学的变革。

In this project, the PI will test a novel hypothesis that eukaryotic cells use wave fringe counting to measure their lengths and shapes. The project was inspired by an experiment showing that strong alternating electric fields disrupt mitosis in a way that is resonant at radio frequencies. The PI will bring ideas from physics, where it is well understood that fringe counting is the method for measuring lengths stable at large scales. The PI hypothesis that fringe counting work cells uses simulated inertia: a method commonly by human engineers in designing microchips and also playing role in biology in the functioning of the cochlea. The larger objective of the proposed research is to identify the meter sticks of life. The intellectual merit of the proposed research might lead to a fundamentally new understanding of cell regulatory machinery. A potential discovery that cells can and do measure lengths by means of fringe counting would open a new chapter in our understanding of morphogenesis and biology in general and can lead to transformation of medicine.