UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #617

Submission information
Submission Number: 617
Submission ID: 9361
Submission UUID: 2bf39af8-a206-4bcb-93f5-53d7fc536a6b

Created: Fri, 08/25/2023 - 11:54 PM
Completed: Sat, 08/26/2023 - 12:05 AM
Changed: Wed, 10/11/2023 - 07:17 PM

Remote IP address: 128.186.63.52
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Primary Research Mentor Name Christopher Solis, PhD, MBA
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns Him/his
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific? Prof.
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) csolis@fsu.edu
Position Title Faculty
FSU College (if applicable) Health and Human Sciences
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation Health, Food and Nutrition (aka Nutrition and Integrative Physiology)
Headshot (optional) Screenshot 2023-08-25 at 9.38.44 PM.png
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above)
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable)
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Title of the Project Developing an AI-based particle-tracking algorithm for video-based monitoring of cardiac muscle cell growth and contractility
Project Keywords AI, computer vision, image analysis, cardiovascular, cardiac, programing, coding, MATLAB, Python, R, JavaScript
Are you currently looking for research assistants? No
Number of Research Assistants Needed 3
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s) Biology/biological sciences, computer and information sciences, Exercise physiology, Information technology, Health services/allied health/health sciences, Mechanical engineering, Entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial studies, Mathematics, Statistics, Chemical engineering, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Electrical and electronics engineering, Computer engineering, Clinical nutrition/nutritionist, Chemistry, Physics, Bioengineering and biomedical engineering, Computational science, Computational biology.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?
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? 8
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 The heart is able to grow in response to exercise. This healthy growth stems from the enlargement of every heart muscle cell in the heart. Heart muscle cells grow by assembling more and more cytoskeleton, known as sarcomere in muscle cells. In the lab, we can force this growth by making cells work harder and their natural response is to build more sarcomeres. One of the proteins that is a structural member of these sarcomeres is alpha-actinin, which acts as a cross-linker to anchor other structural proteins like actin. We recently published a paper demonstrating that we can use two drugs to control the assembly and disassembly of sarcomeres. To this day, we have tracked the growth by "freezing" the cardiac muscle cells and using special dyes to look at the sarcomeres. Nevertheless, our goal is to be able to track the growth and atrophy of sarcomeres in real time from video capturing. As such, the goal of this project will be to develop an algorithm to quantify the level of growth of these sarcomeres inside the cardiac muscle cells. For that, we have acquired videos of cardiac muscle cells undergoing assembly and disassembly that will serve as examples to develop this algorithm.
Research Tasks The research tasks for this project include the following
1) Select the appropriate compiles (MATLAB, PyLab/Python, CellProfiler) to build the algorithm.
2) "Label videos" using techniques such as semantic segmentation to train algorithm
3) Train algorithm to identify objects
3) Estimate the efficiency of the algorithm
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Experience in coding (e.g MATLAB, Python, R, JavaScript). Some experience in biochemistry is nice to have but not required.
Mentoring Philosophy My mentoring philosophy is simple: you can reach the stars if you are in a supportive environment. My goal as a mentor is to provide the right conditions for my mentees to thrive. Examples of how I achieve this are by first and foremost, being available for my mentees to ask questions and get help at the earliest possible. Second, I provide the motivation and the key information for trainees to understand what is the main problem and why it must be solved. Third, I provide my trainees with the career advice they need to that from day one they can start getting feedback of where they can go with their careers. I am cognizant that motivation is an important driver of success because without the right catalyst the smallest challenge ahead will become daunting.
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=vAoAMrwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Please add any additional information here (if applicable): My former lab page: https://chicago.medicine.uic.edu/russell-lab/
My lab page will come online soon.
Roundtable times and Zoom links Wed, Sept. 6: any 30-min block between 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Fri, Sept. 8: any 30-min block between 10:00 am and 12:30 pm.
https://fsu.zoom.us/j/6263906254
Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation Yes
Materials Grant Yes
UROP Poster Presentation Yes
Year 2023
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