Research Team Member
The Co-PI is a developmental biologist and a trained physical chemist, who has
studied mechanisms of tissue morphogenesis using a variety of experimental and
theoretical approaches. His experimental work ranges from site-directed
mutagenesis-aided physical (circular dichroism; fluorescence polarization) studies
of protein conformation (fibronectin), physical (microrheometric) studies of
protein fibril self-assembly (type 1 collagen), studies of morphogenesis in model
tissues ("matrix-driven translocation"), studies of tissue self- organization in
vitro (mesenchymal condensation in high density limb bud precartilage cell
cultures) and in vivo (the embryonic avian limb bud). The theoretical work, much
of it done in collaboration with the PI, has involved applications of percolation
and wetting theory to analysis of collagen assembly and matrix-driven
translocation, applications of reaction-diffusion models to mesenchymal pattern
formation during limb development, cellular automata models of cell aggregation in
vitro, and computational analysis of the evolution of morphogenetic mechanisms as
a function of mutation of the associated genetic networks. The PI and Co-PI are
also part of a consortium that is producing a multiscale model of avian limb
skeletal pattern formation using combined continuum and cellular automata
methodologies. The Co-PI's specific role in the project will be to perform the
genetic manipulations and carry out the molecular biological studies.
