Wyss Institute: Planes, Trains, Automobiles...and Cells?

Two areas that have always interested Phil LeDuc are the mechanics of machines and the wonders of nature. His interest in mechanics, first beginning as a youth taking apart machines like lawn mowers, has intersected with his fascination with nature at the cellular and molecular levels. Here he will present how his lab has been merging mechanical engineering with biology. His lab approaches this intersection by envisioning cells and molecules as “systems” that can be investigated with some of the same fundamental approaches used on machines such as planes, trains, and automobiles looking for unifying principles. The biological systems range from mammalian cells to microorganisms to developmental biology systems (e.g. neurons, magnetic bacteria, energy generating bacteria, Xenopus laevis, stem cells) and he applies principles from mechanical engineering fields (e.g. solid mechanics, control theory, fluidics, heat transfer, design) to understand how these principles may apply across diverse nature-based systems. In addition, he will present in this talk his approaches of using solid mechanics in areas such as cell mechanotransduction. He pursues these goals through developing and utilizing unique custom-built systems as well as nanotechnology, microtechnology, and computational biology. These intersections are especially fascinating to him as biological systems have evolved for distinct reasons (the “initial and boundary conditions” are different). In addition, as an eng...
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