Workshop on Pattern Formation and Functional Morphology, Mon, 07 Jan, 2008
Speaker: Lisa Fauci
Abstract
Cilia and flagella are the prominent organelles associated with the motility of microorganisms. In mammals, cilia are responsible for the movement of mucus and foreign particles out of the airways and help defend the respiratory system from pathogenic organisms. In addition, rotating nodal cilia in mammalian embryos have been shown to generate a leftward flow that is essential for the development of left-right assymetry.
We will present fluid-mechanical models that capture a hierarchy of details of ciliary beating. We capture the fluid flow induced by an array of nodal cilia whose shape is pre-determined. More detailed models of cilia incorporate the internal passive and active forces generated by the axonemal structure (microtubules, dynein arms, nexin links and radial spokes). The forces due to this mechanical system are coupled to the surrounding viscous, incompressible fluid. Here, the shape of the ciliary beat is an emergent property of the coupled mechanical system. We will describe our mathematical and computational framework, as well as present results from computer simulations of two- and three-dimensional models.
URL: www.ricam.oeaw.ac.at/specsem/ssqbm/participants/abstracts/index.php
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