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

项目摘要-UBM小组-利用Manduca Instars(跨学科科学培训和研究)研究新陈代谢的数学生物学新陈代谢是生命的火焰。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活得多快的基本指标。主要的，我们感兴趣的是代谢比例的问题；也就是，新陈代谢的速度如何随着有机体的大小而变化。在大小超过20个数量级、横跨细菌和蓝鲸等不同生物的情况下，新陈代谢比例呈现出一致的数学形式，称为异速生长幂定律。然而，我们目前还没有一个完整的解释来解释为什么这种模式会采取这种形式。为了迎接这一挑战，我们将建立一个由数学生物学本科生和教职员工组成的合作小组，研究烟草天蛾Manduca sexta幼虫的代谢标度。被许多园丁称为西红柿植株的祸害。小型跨学科研究团队将使用分子、形态和生理学方法，结合数学建模和统计来调查支持新陈代谢比例的因素。Manduca是研究代谢比例的理想实验平台，因为幼虫在不到三周的时间内体重增长约10,000倍，形态或行为没有太大变化。在实验环境中解决代谢标度问题的能力提供了一个独特的机会来测试最近提出的解释代谢标度起源的理论，包括那些专注于生物体内类分数维交换表面和资源分布网络的重要性的理论。数学生物学代表了21世纪最令人兴奋的跨学科研究前沿之一。然而，在本科生层面上，学科背景有限和年轻研究人员持续的认知发展对跨学科合作构成了挑战。通过召集学生-教师团队，对一个常见的模型生物体应用不同的生物学和数学方法，我们将使本科生对尖端研究有广泛的兴趣，同时也帮助他们对生物现象以及生物学和数学之间的接口建立更全面的理解。根据竞争性的提案审查过程，六名生物和数学专业的学生将被分成两人或三人一组，参加为期十周的密集暑期研究项目，然后在秋季海报会议上向同行、教师、家长和大学理事介绍情况。在整个学年和夏季，研究团队的互动将由定期的全体小组会议补充，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。代谢调节为这项研究和培训计划提供了理想的重点，因为它涉及从分子到细胞、生物到生态系统的多个组织层面的基本生物过程，而且因为这一当前研究的肥沃和活跃领域已经受益于并促进了数学和生物学方法的整合。

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.