(Back to the menu - click here.)

“Physics and Biology of Morphogenesis”

Date:

Download-files:

Time:

Thursday, 20. April 2017

Video-Recording for any system with MP4-support

- Video.mp4 (ca.441 Mb)

15:15 – 16:25

Boris Shraiman

(UCSB & KITP)

Abstract :

One hundred years ago, D’Arcy Thompson – a nineteenth century polymath, working at

the turn of the twentieth century – wrote a monograph, “On Growth and Form”, in which

he pondered the geometry of living forms and how it emerges in the process of Morphogenesis.

Thompson was ahead of his time. Since then, progress of Developmental Biology and

Molecular Genetics uncovered many if not most of key genes and molecules involved in

Morphogenesis, yet Thompson’s agenda of understanding how developmental processes

actually specify the geometry of tissues, limbs and organs is far from complete. A particular

challenge is to bridge the gap between microscopic scales, where molecular mechanisms

operate, and the macroscopic scales of animal “shape and form”.

This challenge offers much for a Physicist to think about. This talk will focus in particular

on the mechanical aspects of morphogenesis i) examining the role of mechanical stress in

regulation of growth and ii) seeking a quantitative understanding of tissue flows observed

in morphogenesis. At the interface of Physics and Biology we will find some new biology

and new physics.

The future colloquium program can be found at: