(Postponed) Extreme collectives: Why Single Cells Squish and Worms Blob

The School of Biological Sciences Seminar with Saad Bhamla orginally scheduled for April 16, has been postponed. Please visit biosci.gatech.edu for further updates.

Saad Bhamla, Ph.D.
School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT
In this talk I will share two stories about how interesting dynamics emerge when living systems aggregate and form a collective. The first story revolves around gigantic single cells protists (~5mm in length) that can contract their bodies rapidly (<5ms). I will describe our discovery of how these cells harness these ultrafast contractions to send ‘hydrodynamic trigger waves’ for communicating over long distances in cellular communities. The second story is about aquatic worm blobs that knot with their neighbours to form living entangled masses or blobs. I will describe how these soft squishy three dimensional blobs can rapidly morph their shape, move across terrains, and even solve mazes.

Event Details

Date: 
Thursday, April 16, 2020 - 10am

Location:
Room 1005, Roger A. and Helen B. Krone Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB), 950 Atlantic Dr NW, Atlanta, GA 30332