Shaping the wing of a fruit-fly

[Thariq Shanavas]

Hi all,

Prof Amitabha Nandi from the Department of Physics will be giving a talk at the Physics Department  Colloquium tomorrow, titled ' Shaping the wing of a fruit-fly: Active mechanics and dynamics of epithelia during morphogenesis'.

Prof Amitabha will talk about the physical mechanisms involved in the epithelial morphogenesis of a fruit fly using a combination of experiment and theory.

Morphogenesis is the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of developmental biology along with the control of cell growth and cellular differentiation, unified in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo).

In the course of the development of an organism, tissues are dynamically remodelled due to forces generated within the cells, cellular rearrangements, cell division and apoptosis. Such remodelling drives tissue reorganization over long time-scales and leads to the formation of complex shapes. The wing of a fruit-fly is an important model system to study epithelial morphogenesis.

Date: 14/03/2018, Wednesday

Time: 5:15 PM

Venue: LC 201 (Lecture Hall Complex)

About the speaker:

Prof. Amitabha's research focuses on the physics of biological systems. He studies biophysical processes at the sub-cellular, cellular and tissue scales using theoretical and computational techniques. His group is interested in understanding how an observed physical or mechanical process is regulated by the underlying bio-chemical process(es) and vice versa. To do this, they use methods from statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics and soft-matter physics. Specific areas of research include: (1) Dynamical behavior of bio-chemical processes inside cells. (2) To understand cellular functions by studying active and passive transport of cargo molecules inside cells. (3) Study of tissue remodeling and cellular flow patterns during the development of an organism.

Here is the homepage of Prof. Amitabha: http://www.phy.iitb.ac.in/en/employee-profile/amitabha-nandi

Warm Regards,

Thariq Shanavas