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
・TANAKA Motomu
・Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)
・After my PhD, I have been developing my scientific career in Germany over 15 years. I came back to Kyoto in 2013 and opened a new laboratory. Leading an international, cross-disciplinary consortium, I am shedding new lights to key questions in diseases and development from the viewpoint of non-equilibrium physics.
・http://www.icems.kyoto-u.ac.jp/j/ppl/grp/m-tanaka.html
・http://www.pci.uni-heidelberg.de/bpc2/