{"130241":{"#nid":"130241","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Hang Lu Receives Human Frontier Science Program Grant","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EHang Lu and a team of international collaborators have been awarded a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Grant of more than $1.2 million. Research grants provided by HFSP support research in the life sciences with emphasis on novel, innovative, and interdisciplinary approaches that involve scientific exchanges across national and disciplinary boundaries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHSFP received more than 600 pre-proposals for the 2012 round of research grants and accepted only 68 as full proposals. After an external peer review, the organization, based in Strasbourg, France and supported by 13 countries and the European Union, funded a total of 25 projects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELu\u2019s project, \u201cRole of Cytoskeletal Kinases in the Mechanosensory Feed-back Regulation of Muscle,\u201d has a duration of three years and is in collaboration with Dr. Olga Mayans from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, Dr. Guy Benian from Emory University, and Dr. Hans Robert Kalbitzer from the University of Regensburg in Germany.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs associate professor and James R. Fair Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering, Lu leads the Lu Fluidics Group, which conducts research at the interface of engineering and biology. By designing BioMEMS (Bio Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) and microfluidic devices, the group addresses questions in neuroscience, cell biology, and biotechnology that are difficult to answer using conventional techniques. Often referred to as labs-on-a-chip, the novel microsystems developed through research in the group facilitates gathering large-scale quantitative data about complex biological systems, including the evolution of cancer and genetic disorders.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor the HFSP project, Lu and her team will work with C. elegans, a free-living, transparent nematode (roundworm), about 1 mm in length, that is considered a model organism for molecular and developmental biology research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMechanical stimulation is critical to the maintenance of muscle, which undergoes constant remodeling of its architecture,\u201d Lu says. \u201cGiant elastic polypeptides have mechanosensory regions that are also the target of kinase activities, yet despite their importance in human physiology, little is known about how and when kinases act during the contraction\/relaxation cycle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy engineering C. elegans with optical sensors that report the activities occurring in the nematode\u2019s contracting muscles, the researchers hope to gain insight into how muscles work, as well as learn more about how they are developed, organized, and maintained.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELu\u0027s team of international collaborators will work with C. elegans to\u0026nbsp;learn more about how muscles work and the role of kinases.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Lu\u0027s team of international collaborators will work with C. elegans to learn more about how muscles work and the role of kinases."}],"uid":"27255","created_gmt":"2012-05-14 07:56:04","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:13","author":"Josie Giles","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-05-14T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-05-14T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"130251":{"id":"130251","type":"image","title":"Hang Lu","body":null,"created":"1449178647","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:27","changed":"1475894757","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:57","alt":"Hang Lu","file":{"fid":"194650","name":"lu4.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lu4_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lu4_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1092762,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/lu4_0.jpg?itok=BOoX3Cai"}}},"media_ids":["130251"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.hfsp.org\/","title":"Human Frontier Science Program"},{"url":"http:\/\/chbe.gatech.edu\/faculty\/lu","title":"Hang Lu"}],"groups":[{"id":"1240","name":"School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"141","name":"Chemistry and Chemical Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1503","name":"Biotechnology"},{"id":"11638","name":"C. elegans"},{"id":"9458","name":"Chemcial and Biomolecular Engineering"},{"id":"560","name":"chemical engineering"},{"id":"898","name":"Hang Lu"},{"id":"33511","name":"hfsp"},{"id":"33501","name":"human frontier science program"},{"id":"33491","name":"kinases"},{"id":"11639","name":"muscle"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJosie Giles\u003Cbr \/\u003ESchool of Chemical \u0026amp; Biomolecular Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E(404) 385-2299\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:news@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Enews@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["news@chbe.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}