UROP Project
Studying dynamics of membraneless organelles formation in living cells through computational modeling
synthetic biology, mathematical modeling, molecular biology
Research Mentor: Dongheon Lee,
Department, College, Affiliation: Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Contact Email: dlee@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Department, College, Affiliation: Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Contact Email: dlee@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: Engineering, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Physics, Math, Computational Science or any other relevant major
Project Location: Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building ,2001 Levy Avenue
Research Assistant Transportation Required: there is public transportation, via FSU shuttle to innovation park Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
Not participating in the roundtable
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: Engineering, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Physics, Math, Computational Science or any other relevant major
Project Location: Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building ,2001 Levy Avenue
Research Assistant Transportation Required: there is public transportation, via FSU shuttle to innovation park Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
Not participating in the roundtable
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