Life from Chaos

May 27, 2020
Snapshots from a live recording of Drosophila embryonic development.  (Image courtesy of Stefan Günther/EMBL Heidelberg)

Prof. Mahadevan and researchers have developed a framework to quantify the fate and dynamic organization of cells into tissues from imaging data by applying techniques of fluid dynamics and chaos theory to embryogenesis.

Embryogenesis — how an organism arises from a single cell — is one of the most mysterious and complex processes in nature. The large-scale, coordinated and collective movements of cells in a tissue during embryogenesis resemble the complex and chaotic flows of fluids in the ocean or atmosphere. How the movements determine which cells are destined to become part of the brain, the gut or the limb is unknown. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences helps in predicting the fate of cells, making it possible to spot pathologies in the earliest stages of development.  Full story at SEAS News.

 

Snapshots from a live recording of Drosophila embryonic development.  (Image courtesy of Stefan Günther/EMBL Heidelberg)

 

 

See also: Faculty News, 2020