Principles of Hydra’s Immortality Using Smart Materials and Microdevices

Project Gist

Unraveling Physical Principles of Hydra Regeneration Using Quantitative Tools

Keywords

hydra, regeneration, symmetry break, non-equilibrium fluctuation, functions

Background, Purpose, and Project Achievements

Sweet water polyp hydra (also seen as “immortal Hydra” in Greek myth) has been living on our planet since 600 million years ago. They possess almost unlimited regeneration capability either by asexual budding or by regeneration from re-aggregates of dissociated cells. Biological physics group in Kyoto created an international consortium together with the researchers in developmental biology (Heidelberg, GER), polymer chemistry (Sheffield, UK), process engineering (Karlsruhe, GER), and micro-robotics (Osaka). We propose a completely new strategy to unravel the general principle of hydra regeneration by utilizing a highly unique combination of concepts in non-equilibrium statistical physics, microfluidic chips, smart materials, and micro-robots.

Future Prospects

We are actively disclosing our key findings to both scientific and non-scientific communities in forms of conference presentations and research papers. Consortium members will scientifically link the projects funded by third parties (either individual projects or collaborative projects) in order to promote our ground challenge in science.

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Principal Investigator