Man-made cilia have shown that the real structures create complex flows of fluid that may contribute to normal development and tissue differentiation in early embryos, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, reporting their linkurl:findings;http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1005127107 in __PNAS__. linkurl:Richard Superfine,;http://www.cs.unc.edu/People/Faculty/Bios/superfine.html a biophysicist at UNC, lead a team of researchers hoping to more completely explain how a ciliated area called the embryonic node aids in the formation of separate germ layers and in the development of a right-left axis in the embryo. "In order to understand these biological situations, we would have to make our own model and make precise measurements on what the fluid flows were like," Superfine told __The Scientist__. Superfine added that his group has so far created the model -- made from...
The artificial cilia in action mimicking the beat of nodal cilia in the embryo
Courtesy of Adam Shields, UNC PhD student
Courtesy of Adam Shields, UNC PhD student
Directional transport of particles above the cilia tips
Courtesy of Adam Shields, UNC PhD student
Courtesy of Adam Shields, UNC PhD student
"Mixing" flows below the cilia tips
Courtesy of Adam Shields, UNC PhD student
Courtesy of Adam Shields, UNC PhD student
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