From the Lung to the Cells' Powerhouses: Symmorphosis in the Design of the Pathway for Oxygen

Presented by Ewald Weibel

Time and Location:

May 21, 2008, 4:30 pm
Franz Hall, Room 1178 (next to IPAM)

Light refreshments at IPAM starting at 4PM
Reception at IPAM immediately following lecture

This lecture is part of the IPAM workshop IV “Optimal Transport in the Human Body: Lungs and Blood.”For more information about this lecture (including directions and parking) and other activities at IPAM, visit out website or call (310) 825-4755.

Abstract:

Sustainable energy, needed to power cell work such as muscle contraction, is generated by combustion of fuels in the mitochondria, the cells’powerhouses. This process depends on an adequate and continuous supply of oxygen along the network ofstructures constituting the pathway for oxygen: from the lung through the blood and heart to the cells. The principle of symmorphosispredicts that the structural design of this respiratory system is economic: “enough but not too much”to satisfy the functional needs. The test of the validity of such a hypothesis is based on a physico-mathematical model of the quantitative structure-function relations at the different levels of the network, exchange surfaces and distribution trees, and exploits the fact that the animal world shows great differences in energy needs, between large and small mammals, and between sedentary and athletic species.

The Speaker:

Ewald R. Weibel, MD DSc(hon), is Professor of Anatomy Emeritus at the University of Berne in Switzerland and was Associate in the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University. He is a Foreign Associate of the US National Academyof Sciences, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received the Marcel-BenoistPrize of the Swiss Federal Government and the Anders RetziusGold Medal of the Swedish Medical Society. He served as President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences. He is author of The Pathway for Oxygen (1984)and Symmorphosis(2000).

Contact Us:

Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM)
Attn: OTWS4
460 Portola Plaza
Los Angeles CA 90095-7121
Phone: 310 825-4755
Fax: 310 825-4756
Email: otws4@ipam.ucla.edu
Website: http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/otws4/