NSF PRFB FY 2023: Linking spatial variations in cellular chemical energy turnover to tissue growth in a developing organ

NSF PRFB 2023 财年：将细胞化学能量周转的空间变化与发育器官中的组织生长联系起来

• 批准号: 2305831
• 负责人: Bezia Lemma
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Lemma, Bezia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305831&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; PRFB; FY; 2023; Linking

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This project will study where energy is used as an organ grows and develops. This will be accomplished by imaging the energy in growing organs and then using physics to predict the growth and development of that organ, thus establishing a “Rule of life.” Such a rule could have far-reaching implications for studying organs, and this work will provide a new perspective for understanding organ development. The organ this study focuses on will be the lung. Broader impacts will include outreach to young scientists through an annual 8 week summer program through Princeton University (The Princeton Learning Laboratory) designed for high school students, as well as training of undergraduate students. This project explores the hypothesis that the physical forces driving tissue development are proportional to the local rate of energy production. Measurements in early embryonic chicken and mouse lung explants will connect patterns of chemical-energy turnover to mesoscopic tissue morphogenesis. The project will (1) use fluorescence microscopy of lung explants to measure spatial variations of energy metabolism, (2) measure the mechanical properties of the tissue layers in the lung explants, and (3) model the growth of the lung from the perspective of active matter physics, with a driving force locally proportional to the rate of energy production. The embryonic lung was chosen as a model organ because the morphology is distinct and stereotyped within a species, easily imaged in real-time, and prior work has characterized the morphogenesis of lung explants. Lungs collected from chicken eggs will make this research easily accessible for young scientists. Training programs incorporated into this project include a high school student summer program and subprojects for university students. These experiments and models will be some of the first work toward understanding energetics in organogenesis. The spatial quantification of energy metabolism and material properties generated by this work will provide a testbed for physical theories that relate cellular energetics to tissue generation from the molecular level, up the hierarchical structure of the developing lung, to the whole-organ scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这一行动为NSF 2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。这个项目将研究能量作为器官在哪里生长和发展。这将通过成像正在生长的器官中的能量，然后使用物理学来预测该器官的生长和发育来实现，从而建立一条“生命法则”。这一规律可能会对器官研究产生深远的影响，这项工作将为理解器官发育提供一个新的视角。这项研究的重点将是肺。更广泛的影响将包括通过普林斯顿大学(普林斯顿学习实验室)为高中生设计的每年8周的暑期项目来接触年轻科学家，以及对本科生的培训。这个项目探索了这样一种假设，即推动组织发育的物理力量与当地的能量生产速度成正比。对早期胚胎鸡和小鼠肺外植体的测量将把化学能量周转模式与中观组织形态发生联系起来。该项目将(1)使用肺外植体的荧光显微镜来测量能量代谢的空间变化，(2)测量肺外植体中组织层的机械性能，以及(3)从活性物质物理的角度对肺的生长进行建模，推动力在局部与能量产生速率成正比。胚胎肺之所以被选为模型器官，是因为它的形态在一个物种内是独特的和刻板的，易于实时成像，而且以前的工作已经表征了肺外植体的形态发生。从鸡蛋中收集的肺将使年轻科学家很容易获得这项研究。纳入该项目的培训计划包括高中生暑期计划和针对大学生的子项目。这些实验和模型将是理解器官发生中的能量学的第一批工作。这项工作产生的能量代谢和材料特性的空间量化将为将细胞能量学与组织产生联系起来的物理理论提供一个试验台，这些理论从分子水平上，向上发育中的肺的层次结构，到整个器官规模。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。