March 25, 2024

This Thursday, March 28 Dr. Lisa Fauci from Tulane University will be giving a talk as a part of the Boeing Distinguished Colloquium Series.  The talk will take place in Smith Hall, room 205 from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm.  
The title and abstract of the talk can be found on the Applied Mathematics website here.

Title: Insights from biofluidmechanics: A tale of tails

Abstract: The motion of undulating or rotating elastic `tails’ in a fluid environment is a common element in many biological and engineered systems. At the microscale, we will consider models of the journey of extremely long and flexible insect flagella through narrow and tortuous female reproductive tracts, and the penetration of mucosal tissue by helical flagella of bacteria. At the macroscale, we will probe the neuromechanics and fluid dynamics of the lamprey, the most primitive vertebrate and, hence, a model organism. Using a closed-loop model that couples neural signaling, muscle mechanics, fluid dynamics and sensory feedback, we examine the hypothesis that amplified proprioceptive feedback could restore effective locomotion in lampreys with spinal injuries.