Ongoing research from associate professor, Allen Liu, and his lab has been featured in the proceedings for a workshop series from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Liu’s research focuses on building synthetic structures with the electrical properties of neurons, using a bottom-up approach by reconstituting the minimum set of ion channels needed to generate an action potential.
“This research may help us interrogate and understand the rules of life and how to build complex functions out of biological parts,” said Liu.
The proceedings entitled, Understanding the Rules of Life, summarize work funded by the National Science Foundation under their program of the same name that was started in 2016. The goal was to identify generalizable rules that govern biological systems at micro and macro levels.
“I hope this work inspires other scientists and engineers to explore fundamental questions about rules of life and how biological functions can arise from inanimate parts,” said Liu.
