1media/Slime_demo_dsf_thumb.jpg2020-09-29T18:01:21+00:00Center for UG Excellence929059fe9a8db94662876b11cdef6e83b70e4c81341plain2020-09-29T18:01:21+00:00Center for UG Excellence929059fe9a8db94662876b11cdef6e83b70e4c81
College: Schmid College of Science and Technology Department: Biological Sciences
Overview of scholarly research/creative activity: In the Comparative Biomaterials Lab, we are interested in how animals work. The animals that we focus on are the hagfishes, which are a group of deep sea, eel-like animals that are notorious for their ability to produce vast amounts of fibre-reinforced slime in a fraction of a second when they are attacked by predators.
Specific projects working on: Some of the projects that we are currently working on: Diversity of hagfishes in the Galapagos archipelago High-speed video of hagfish slime deployment in seawater Biosynthesis and coiling of a massive protein polymer in hagfish gland thread cells Hagfish locomotion in soft sediments and in complex environments Biomimicry of hagfish egg attachment mechanisms Scaling of slime thread size with body size in hagfishes.
Number of students looking to work with: 3-4
Time commitment for students: minimum 6 hours per week
When students are needed: Summer 2021
What would students be expected to do: lab experiments, library research, data analysis
