Cellular communication is an old story. Multiple communication mechanisms, including signal transduction, material transportation supported by multiple sub-cellular structures such as synaptic vesicle and junction complex, remain the hot spots of cell biology for many years. However, in addition to all the above-mentioned, are there any other communication mechanisms more intimate and straightforward? Take a look at the plasmodesma, which is a special cellular structure connecting neighboring plant cells. The two cells on each end of the plasmodesma share a certain amount of cytoplasm. Therefore, it serves as an important and unique pathway of communication in the plant kingdom. So is it possible for animal cells, which lack the rigid structure of cell wall, to form and maintain such a plasmodesma-like structure? May it succeed, what changes can be observed among the altered cells with this new type of communication? These are the questions that we tried to answer as we started out this project.

Introduction

The second project of Team Fudan-Lux is about constructing a brand-new biological model using a recently discovered cellular structure termed Tunneling Nanotubes(TNT) and bacteria containing the green fluorescence protein. By inducing and stabilizing TNTs between certain types of malignant tumor cells, a cellular network could be obtained. Then the bacteria containing GFP is introduced into the tumor cells by microinjection. By doing so, a new type of biological system is created. More importantly, what we want to study here, is the behavior of the injected bacteria within the tumor cells. Since TNTs formed between cells act as super highways for material transportation, bacteria thus can move from one cell to another via TNTs. Given the condition that bacteria would tend to choose the most suitable place for them to live in, in the least energy-consuming way, a distribution pattern thus can be obtained which have the characteristic of the least increase of entropy. By building such a model, we want to simulate certain types of problems in the real life that can’t be solved by simple computation, e.g. traffic jams between cities, and provide solutions to them.

Model Design

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Light Sensor

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo. Quisque sit amet est et sapien ullamcorper pharetra. Vestibulum erat wisi, condimentum sed, commodo vitae, ornare sit amet, wisi. Aenean fermentum, elit eget tincidunt condimentum, eros ipsum rutrum orci, sagittis tempus lacus enim ac dui. Donec non enim in turpis pulvinar facilisis. Ut felis. Praesent dapibus, neque id cursus faucibus, tortor neque egestas augue, eu vulputate magna eros eu erat. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nam dui mi, tincidunt quis, accumsan porttitor, facilisis luctus, metus

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Application

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