Biomechanics of Cell Structures for Haptic Simulations.

学生将寻求更好地了解适用于细胞的物理建模技术，特别是研究计算机科学和工程技术，使我们能够：a)跟踪单个分子和分子组-本质上是一个数据问题，b)寻找智能算法将分子聚集在一起形成细胞器和膜等细胞形式，c)赋予这些团块反映其作用的特性。这一方法将允许开源的物理引擎计算适当的解决方案。主要目标是探索血栓形成过程中肌肉收缩或血小板聚集等细胞过程的近似物理模型，这些模型可以快速解决，以便在触觉交互中实现。主要目标是促进学生对细胞过程的亲身了解，并允许他们在互动的触觉虚拟现实学习环境中探索假设场景。这一领域的一些初步工作是由研究人员在对用于牙科空洞修复的材料进行建模时完成的，然而，这种方法是对流体问题很好地工作的“粒子对的总和”，但对细胞物理学来说不够快或不够普遍。特别感兴趣的是微管与动力蛋白和动力蛋白相互作用的机制的模拟。动力蛋白和动力蛋白本质上是沿着微管“行走”，并提供几个细胞过程背后的机制，包括肌肉收缩、细胞分裂和蛋白质运输。微管在血小板的活动(产生、静止、激活和血栓形成)中也是至关重要的，并与了解血块的形成有关。因此，这项研究是由血小板生物学研究组和雷丁大学触觉网络联合开展的。它有可能促进触觉和虚拟现实模拟技术的发展，并促进对血小板力学的理解。

The studentship will seek to gain a better understanding of physical modelling techniques appropriate to the cell, and in particular investigate techniques from computer science and engineering that would allow us to:a) track individual molecules and molecule groups - essentially a data problem,b) seek intelligent algorithms to clump molecules together to form cellular forms such as organelles and membranes, andc) give these clumps properties that characterise their actions that reflect their role. This approach would allow an open-source 'physics engines' to compute appropriate solutions.The primary aim is to explore approximate physical models of cellular processes such as muscle contraction or platelet aggregation during thrombosis that can be solved rapidly to allow implementation in a haptic interaction. The primary goal is to facilitate a 'hands on' understanding of the cellular process for students, and to allow them to explore 'what if' scenarios in an interactive haptic virtual reality learning environment. Some initial work in this area was done by the investigators when they modelled the materials used for cavity restoration in dentistry however the method is a 'sum of particle pairs' that works well for fluid problems but is insufficiently fast or general for cellular physics.Of particular interest is the modelling of the mechanics of microtubules interacting with dynein and kinesins proteins. Dynein and kinesin essentially 'walk' along the microtubules and provide the mechanisms behind several cell processes including muscle contraction, cell division and protein transport. Microtubules are also vital in platelet activity (production, quiescence, activation and thrombus formation), and is relevant to understanding blood clot formation. Thus this research studentship is joint between the Platelet Biology Research Group and the University of Reading Haptics network. It has the potential to both advance haptic and virtual reality simulation techniques and to advance understanding of platelet mechanics.