March 4, 2009
3 pm in Howey Physics Room N110

 

Howard A. Stone
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

"Cellular-scale dynamics: kinetics and hydrodynamics"

 

I will discuss several microfluidic approaches for addressing dynamical questions raised by cellular-scale phenomena. The necessary background for thinking about the main themes in the talk will be introduced, and the major ideas and approaches we have taken will be highlighted. In particular, (i) we demonstrate a microfluidic
technique for measuring Michaelis-Menten kinetic rate constants, which should be broadly applicable to enzymatic reactions, and investigate the idea using experiments, numerical simulations, and scaling arguments. In addition, (ii) we consider the influence of shear stress on the kinetics of ATP release from red blood cells that flow through constrictions, which may be helpful for understanding extracellular ATP transport and signalling. These microfluidic projects have in common the use of hydrodynamic principles to explore quantitatively new questions in nonlinear chemical kinetics and cellular mechanotransduction.