Defining the principles of a sub-cellular "3D printer"
How do living cells synthesise objects that are tiny, yet shaped with extraordinary precision? Many animals produce intricate microscopic structures—ridges, toothed blades, paddles, hooks, or joints—that give them colour, or help them move. These are often made from chitin, one of the world’s most abundant biopolymers, but formed at a microscopic scale, smaller than the width of a human hair. We still know little about how individual cells can build such complex objects so reliably and with such diversity.
A new collaboration between Florian Raible – a researcher at the Department of Neuroscience and Developmental Biology – and Alain Goriely – a researcher at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford – will tackle this question from a novel direction, using a modelling approach to work out the rules that govern and limit shape formation on the nano- to micrometric scale.
The project capitalises on marine bristle worms, whose bristles are synthesised by highly specialised cells. These cells work much like miniature three-dimensional printers: tiny protrusions on their surface move in specific patterns while depositing chitin, shaping each bristle into its final specific form. Depending on the fine orchestration of this deposition process, many different shapes are possible. By combining microscopic tools with mathematical modelling and experimental manipulation, the teams will interrogate how the precise orchestration of cellular shapes sculpts the chitin structures generated by this three-dimensional printer. The expectation is that this will lead the teams to identify the first rules by which shape formation works, and thereby also explore the “morpho-space” of possible shapes that such systems can possibly generate. This effort will thereby also help to identify possible molecular factors involved in this printing process.
About the HFSP and the HFSP Research Grants
The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Research Grants support innovative, curiosity driven research projects into fundamental questions in the life sciences, with a strong emphasis on novel, interdisciplinary and international collaboration.
Successful proposals are selected primarily on the basis of outstanding novelty, scientific quality, and the added value of the collaboration. HFSP explicitly encourages projects that challenge established paradigms, employ innovative methods, and involve collaborators who have not worked together previously, reflecting the program’s mission to push the frontiers of mechanistic understanding in biology.
The HFSP Research Grant program is one of the most competitive funding programs. This year, only 28 projects were selected for funding, out of close to 1000 total applications, yielding a funding rate of less than 3%.
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