Mathematical Biology Colloquium Thursday, March 31 at 3:30 in MG2050

Dr. Tim Walston from Truman’s Biology Department will be presenting “A worm that won’t destroy your PC: An interdisciplinary approach to understanding the embryo”

Abstract: The early embryo of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans provides a great system to understand the forces that act upon cells during development. The cells at the 4-cell stage change their shape during this stage of development. The most notable is the cell called EMS that extends a protrusion underneath the neighboring cell ABa. To understand the forces acting on the cells at this stage, a Glazier-Graner-Hogeweg model of the early embryo was created. In order to apply biological data to the model for initiation and validation, a method for segmentation of microscopic images was also developed. A better understanding of how cells in the embryo change shape are now being explored using this model.