UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1140

Research Mentor Information
---------------------------
Primary Research Mentor Name: Dongheon Lee
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): dlee@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Position Title: Faculty
FSU College (if applicable): FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation: Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Headshot (optional): {Empty}

Additional Research Mentor(s)
-----------------------------
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above): {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): {Empty}
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable): {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?: {Empty}
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): {Empty}

Overall Project Details
-----------------------
Title of the Project: Studying dynamics of membraneless organelles formation in living cells  through computational modeling 
Project Keywords: synthetic biology, mathematical modeling, molecular biology
Are you currently looking for research assistants?: Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed : 1
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s):
Engineering, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Physics, Math, Computational Science or any other relevant major

Project Location:: Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building ,2001 Levy Avenue
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?: there is public transportation, via FSU shuttle to innovation park
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s):: Partially Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work?: 10
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work?: Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description:
After spontaneous protein phase separation (PS) in a living cell was observed for the first time, subsequent studies have revealed that the occurrence of biomolecular PS is ubiquitous in a living system. The immediate consequence of PS is the formation of membraneless organelles (MLOs), where select biomolecules such as proteins and mRNAs are enriched. Due to such enrichment of selective biomolecules, MLOs are suggested to play important regulatory roles in cellular processes. Past studies focused on biophysical mechanisms behind the biomolecular PS, which significantly enhances our understanding of the PS processes. Despite such progress in the past decade, we lack a predictive model that accurately predicts the dynamics of MLO formation in living cells. Motivated by the above considerations, this project aims to 1) construct a mechanistic model that describes the dynamics of MLO formation in bacteria  2) perform estimation of parameters in the proposed model to maximize the predictive capability of the proposed model based on the real microscopic images of MLOs in bacteria 3) Validate the prediction accuracy by performing new experiments (in bacteria).

Research Tasks:
Literature Review, Simulation Submissions on RCC Cluster, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Scientific Writing, and Presentation
if the simulation part goes well, students will perform fluorescence microscopy experiments to image the formation of membraneless organelles in bacteria

Skills that research assistant(s) may need::
Required: Willingness to learn, Computer competency, Scientific curiosity
Recommended: Prior coding knowledge, Basic knowledge of molecular biology

Mentoring Philosophy:
As the most of the undergraduates are new to research and will face various challenges. I will establish various communication channels with the undergraduate to ensure that the student can communicate with me whenever an issue arises even outside of our scheduled meetings. This will be especially critical at the beginning when the student faces a completely new topic and learns new approaches. By creating such environment, I believe the student will feel supported and encouraged to ask critical questions for the success of the project and the student.

Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable):: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RWaEOVgAAAAJ&hl=en
Please add any additional information here (if applicable)::
If anyone is interested in knowing more about the project, please send me an email to schedule a meeting. 


Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable?: No
Roundtable times and Zoom links:
{Empty}

UROP Program Elements
---------------------
Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication: Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation: Yes
Materials Grant: Yes
UROP Poster Presentation: Yes

{Empty}
Year: 2025
update url: https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?token=8HhvkXSncj8JbDNPDUeiCTG-MVOu7-SIYGRP2hVIKrM