Deans’ Summer Research Fellowship (DSRF) Story: Tarik Burlingham

Author: Tarik Burlingham

What was your major research question for the DSRF project and where do you hope this project will go?

The core question that we asked was "Across the scales of life, how much energy can biology harvest from a gradient, and what does it cost to build and sustain that gradient?" I learned that gradients are ubiquitous and exist everywhere. We used a tool from statistical mechanics to quantify how much energy is dissipated per time in an exponential gradient in steady state (the Bicoid morphogen gradient). We found that the energy dissipated per time by the Bicoid gradient - and therefore the energy required to maintain the gradient - pales in comparison to the actual energy expenditure of the source that synthesizes the Bicoid molecules that actually create the distribution. We are now curious about investigating the form (as described by differential equations) that other gradients take, such as the polarity protein gradient in yeast, the kinesin gradient in flagella, and others. We are curious about the power to create and maintain these gradients and what this energy expenditure means in the energy budget of the cell.

What challenges did you encounter during your research and how did you work through these difficulties?

There was a lot of new math and physics to learn. I had not thought very deeply about the implications and assumptions of my thermal physics class when I took it. I spent much of my time building strong fundamentals. I also didn't know how to do back-of-the-envelope estimations, so I spent a lot of time learning how to do those.

What sparked your interest in this field?

I was inspired by the scope of the questions about the world that leading biophysicists were able to tackle with interesting and novel techniques from math and physics. 

Curious about DSRF?

This project was made possible through the Deans’ Summer Research Fellowship (DSRF)—a unique opportunity for rising juniors and seniors in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences to pursue funded summer research full-time!