MS02 - OTHE-2
Interfaith Prayer and Reflection Room (#3020C) in The Ohio Union

Recent Studies on the Biomechanics and Fluid Dynamics of Living Systems: Locomotion and Fluid Transport

Monday, July 17 at 04:00pm

SMB2023 Follow Monday during the "MS02" time block.
Room assignment: Interfaith Prayer and Reflection Room (#3020C) in The Ohio Union.

Note: this minisymposia has multiple sessions. The other session is MS01-OTHE-2 (click here).

Alexander Hoover, Matea Santiago

Description:

From the blebbing of cells to the undulations of fish, biomechanical and biofluidic systems are ubiquitous in nature. Many of these systems involve interplay of multiple physics, such as the structures’ elasticity, the fluid dynamics of differing length scales, and neural activity. Other times, these processes can include chemical signaling, rheological properties of biomaterials, as well as osmotic and the biochemical processes that drive their motion. In this mini-symposium, we focus on modeling the biological processes that undergird these biofluidic and biomechanical systems, with methods that range from computational simulation to asymptotic analysis. This mini-symposium aims to bring together these communities to discuss recent advances in modeling, analysis, and computational simulation for investigating the interplay of biological processes, with a focus on locomotion and fluid transport. This is the companion mini-symposium of Recent Studies on the Biomechanics and Fluid Dynamics of Living Systems: Cellular Biomechanics and Microfluidics.

Daisuke Takagi

University of Hawaii at Manoa (Mathematics)

"Larval fish counteract ram and suction to capture evasive prey"

Fish larvae are considered to be suction feeders that rely on suction flow to capture prey. However, recent observations of clownfish larvae revealed that they behave like ram feeders that accelerate towards copepod prey. Capturing copepods is challenging because they are highly evasive and sensitive to fluid deformation. To identify the strategies needed for successful capture, we developed a simple model based on potential flow theory. Our results show that fish larvae with weak ram and suction strengths can still capture copepods through hydrodynamic stealth. This suggests that suction by fish larvae is used primarily for stealth rather than capture.
Additional authors: Irvin Chang; Daniel K. Hartline; Petra H. Lenz. All authors are affiliated with the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Lisa J. Fauci

Tulane University (Mathematics)

"A closed-loop neuromechanical model of locomotion of lampreys with spinal injuries"

In some vertebrates such as lampreys, swimming function can be regained after spinal injuries, but the exact mechanism of this recovery is not well understood. One hypothesis is that amplified proprioceptive (body-sensing) feedback can allow an injured lamprey to regain functional swimming even if the descending signal is lost. Here we present a multiscale model of an undulatory swimmer whose neural signaling is driven by a phase oscillator model that is fully coupled to a viscous, incompressible fluid. We examine the effects of amplified feedback on swimming behavior, and show that in some cases, feedback amplification below a spinal lesion is sufficient to partially or entirely restore effective swimming behavior.
Additional authors: Christina Hamlet, Bucknell University Jennifer Morgan, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA Eric Tytell, Tufts University

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Annual Meeting for the Society for Mathematical Biology, 2023.