Distinguished Professor Juan C. Lasheras from UC San Diego has accepted an invitation from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to
serve as a member of the Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems Study Section, which reviews grant applications for scientific merit as a
part of the NIH Center for Scientific Review.
The Modeling and Analysis of Biological
Systems Study Section (MABS) reviews NIH grant applications concerned with the
development of modeling / enabling technologies for understanding the
complexity of biological systems. The scope of these systems ranges from
molecular, to supra-molecular, to genes, to organelles, to cellular, to tissue
and to organ level studies.
In March 2014, Lasheras and a
team of biologists and engineers from UC San Diego published a paper in the Journal
of Cell Biology (JCB) in which they reported their discovery that
white blood cells move to inflamed sites by walking in a stepwise manner. The
cells, the researchers found, periodically form and break adhesions mainly
under two “feet,” and generate the traction forces that propel them forward by
the coordinated action of contractile proteins.
Their discovery, which was highlighted on the cover of
the March 17 issue of JCB, is an important advance toward developing new
pharmacological strategies to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as
arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, Type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.
The paper is titled “Both contractile axial and
lateral traction force dynamics drive amoeboid cell motility” Read
the UC
San Diego press release here.
Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems
Tools developed by grants funded by the
NIH Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems study section are
characteristically applied to further understanding of interactions and
integrations through levels and scales and the emergence of patterns that help
to explain system behavior.
Members are selected on the basis of
their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as
evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific
journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and
honors.
Professor Lasheras, for example, holds
the Stanford S. & Beverly P. Penner Professor in Engineering or Applied
Science endowed chair at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Lasheras is a faculty member in the Department of
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Jacobs School.
Professor Lashers serves as Director of
the Center for Medical Devices and Technology, part of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine at UC San
Diego. He is a Faculty Director of the Medical
Device Engineering executive master’s degree program at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
Lasheras joins UC San Diego
bioengineering professor Andrew McCulloch
on the 16-person Modeling and Analysis of
Biological Systems Study Section. UC San Diego is the only university with more
than one professor on this NIH study section.
No comments:
Post a Comment