Colorado State University chemical and biological engineering professor has been awarded a $400,000, five-year National Science Foundation CAREER grant to study how stem cells respond to the geometry and topography of their environment.
Professor Ashok Prasad will use mathematical and computational modeling to understand how these physical cues can direct stem cell differentiation into different cell types. He will develop models that improve understanding of cells and how they renew themselves, particularly when they begin to form bone, according to a press release on the university website.
“If we understood the details of these processes, we could aid bone formation for fracture healing, help in prevention of heart disease and perhaps even help cancer therapeutics by manipulating mechanical signals,” Prasad was quoted in the release as saying.
Specifically he will investigate why mesenchymal stem cells show dramatic differences in shape when they’re on different platforms or substrates, especially nano-pillared surfaces, and why they then transform into different cell types, the release said.
Prasad’s laboratory will develop mathematical models of the cellular response to the mechanical environment that will be then tested out in the laboratories of collaborators in Colorado State University and elsewhere.
The grant includes an educational component in collaboration with the Education and Outreach Center of the College of Natural Sciences to train K-12 science teachers and students. This involves introducing a modeling component in the ongoing Phunky Phrenology project, where students collect climate data by observing seasonal data on plants.
Prasad will also develop simple computer models for students to use in their classes to understand the non-intuitive effects of feedback in the natural world. Feedback plays an important role in ecology, in biology and in all human engineered systems that have controls.
According to the National Science Foundation, the Early CAREER Award supports junior faculty who “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”
Prasad, who completed his doctoral degree in physics from Brandeis University, joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher in the chemical engineering department. Previously, he taught economics at an undergraduate college in the University of Delhi.
He has a master’s degree in economics and a bachelor’s degree in physics, both from the University of Delhi. He joined Colorado State in early 2009.
