Investigating wave morphodynamics in electrically active cell sheets

ORAL

Abstract

Biological systems exhibit many emergent phenomena, from schooling behavior in fish to electrical network dynamics in neurons and cardiomyocytes. On a tissue scale, these collective dynamics often arise in response to changes in the extracellular and intracellular environment. In this talk, we describe the collective signaling of HEK293T/17 cells modified to express sodium and potassium ion channels such that they form electrically-active monolayers. We investigate the collective firing dynamics across multiple spatio-temporal scales in these cell sheets in a highly-controlled fashion in order to understand the emergence of various, driven electrical wave morphologies and propagation dynamics. To accomplish this goal, we apply electrical and optical perturbations utilizing a novel optical system—a Multi-Scale Microscope—that allows for simultaneous imaging across two different spatial scales using epifluorescence and rescan confocal imaging techniques.

*AFOSR grant number FA9550-16-1-0052

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Presenters

  • Phillip Alvarez

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Institute of Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Biophysics, University of Maryland, College Park

Authors

  • Phillip Alvarez

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Institute of Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Biophysics, University of Maryland, College Park

  • Sylvester J Gates III

    • Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park

  • Samira Aghayee

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Institute of Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Biophysics, University of Maryland, College Park

  • Kate M O'Neill

    • Institute of Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park
    • University of Maryland, College Park

  • Gabriel Frank

    • Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

  • Wolfgang Losert

    • University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Physics, University of Maryland
    • Institute of Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Physics, University of Maryland,College Park
    • Physics, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Department of Physics, University of Maryland-College Park
    • IREAP, IPST, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Departments of Physics, IPST and IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park