Undergraduate Summer Research Program, May 20 - August 16, 2013 joint initiative with the
NSF-funded Mathematical Biosciences Institute
(MBI) in Columbus (OH)
The goal of this MBI NSF-funded program is to introduce students to
exciting new areas of mathematical biology, to involve them in
collaborative research with their peers and faculty mentors, and to
increase their interest in mathematical biology.
The program consists of three parts - each including a mix of
educational and social experiences:
May 20-31,
2013: A high quality two-week program at MBI designed
to introduce students to a variety of areas in mathematical
biology.
June
3 - August 9, 2013: A
personalized eight-to-ten week research experience (at one of
the seven
partner universities, including IUPUI) that allows students to delve
into depth in a particular topic (click here
to know more about the
topics offered at IUPUI).
August
12 - 16, 2013: A one-week student-centered conference at
MBI featuring talks and posters by students doing research in
mathematical biology, keynotes by prominent mathematical biologists, a
graduate studies recruitment fair, and other special features including
a conference dinner and social event
Specific research projects offered at IUPUI are:
Assessing
vascular compensation following a major arterial occlusion
Faculty Mentor: Julia Arciero
Amphetamines
and neural control of body temperature
Faculty Mentor: Yaroslav
Molkov
Assessing vascular compensation following a major arterial occlusion
Faculty Mentors: Julia Arciero
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) affects nearly 8 millionAmericans and
is characterized by occluded systemic arteries (often due
to atherosclerosis) and reduced blood supply to tissue. The human
vasculature is capable of compensating for an occlusion by triggering
the dilation of collateral arteries, which are arteries that bypass the
blockage to allow blood to reach the necessary tissue regions. In some
cases, the vasculature compensation is successful, but other cases
result in significant morbidity and mortality. It is presently unknown
why certain cases of PAD are restored to normal circulatory health
while others progress to limb loss. There is currently no consistent
method for assessing microvascular compensation. Counting the number of
arterioles or capillaries in calf muscle and the number of vessel
branches in the thigh are different methods that have been used
previously to evaluate changes in vascular compensation following
arterial occlusion in the leg. However, it is not understood how
changes in each of these segments correlate to tissue perfusion and
translate to changes in vascular resistance. The lack of consistent
methods for assessing vascular compensation leads to uncertainty in the
conclusions stated in many pre-clinical PAD studies. The experimental
and theoretical approaches proposed here will advance the field of
vascular biology by obtaining accurate vessel length and diameter data
throughout an entire network using a novel experimental technique and
implementing this data in a theoretical model that can predict whether
increases in vessel diameters or vessel numbers are most significant in
restoring normal perfusion in PAD.
Amphetamines and neural control of body temperature
Faculty Mentors: Yaroslav
Molkov
Derivativesof amphetamines are widely abused all over the world. After long-term
use they lead to cognitive, neurophysiological, and neuroanatomical
deficits. Neurophysiological deficits are enhanced by hyperthermia,
which itself is a major mortality factor in drug abusers. Temperature
responses to injections of methamphetamine are multiphasic and include
both hypothermic and hyperthermic phases, which are highly dependent on
ambient temperature and previous exposure to the drug. Also, various
derivatives directly affect various neuromediator systems, such as
dopaminergic, noradrenergic, serotonergic. Finally, body temperature is
dependent on multiple thermoregulatory mechanisms and complex neuronal
circuitry. Not surprising that studying effects of amphetamines is very
difficult due to multiplicity of factors involved. Most of research is
focused on simplified experimental settings which do not have any
predictability on real-life situations. We consider modeling as a
breakthrough tool to design studies of translational value. The
long term goal of our project is to construct a comprehensive and
physiologically relevant model of doze-dependent temperature response
to methamphetamine representing interconnected neural structures which
are experimentally proven to be specific brain areas and cell groups.
We will start with generating a pilot set of experimental data on
effect of inhibition of neuronal activity in the dorsomedial
hypothalamus of the rat on temperature responses to a single dose of
methamphetamine