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。该项目的灵感来自于一个实验，该实验表明，强交变电场以一种在无线电频率下共振的方式破坏有丝分裂。PI将带来来自物理学的想法，在物理学中，条纹计数是测量大尺度稳定长度的方法，这是众所周知的。PI假设边缘计数工作细胞使用模拟惯性：一种人类工程师在设计微芯片时常用的方法，在耳蜗的生物学功能中也起作用。拟议研究的更大目标是确定生命的米尺。所提出的研究的智力价值可能导致对细胞调节机制的根本新理解。一个潜在的发现是，细胞可以并且确实通过边缘计数来测量长度，这将为我们对形态发生和生物学的理解打开新的篇章，并可能导致医学的转变。

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.