Particle transport in ciliated tissues

Motile cilia beat collectively to pump fluid and clear out pathogens and pollutants from the lungs. Yet, these particles can find their way and impact our health. Our knowledge of the contribution of fluid transport to this process remains limited, hampering not only our understanding of viral infection but also the delivery of nanoparticle-based treatments. We aim to understand the biophysics of particle transport in ciliated tissues, focusing on two objectives: Objective 1: To understand the contribution of cilia motility and spatial organization on cilia-particle interactions. We will use the ciliated skin of frog embryos (Xenopus) as primary model system. This is similar to the ciliated epithelia of our airways, but is optically accessible and amenable for biophysical manipulations of the cilia spatiotemporal organization. Objective 2: To understand how the biophysical properties of NPs impact their interactions with cilia. We will test a library of particles of different sizes and shapes relevant in the context of nanomedicine and viral infections. These will include plastic, golden, and virus-like nanoparticles. Our approach will combine high speed imaging and microfluidics to measure cilia and particle dynamics down to the cell scale. Mathematical modelling will be employed to interpret the experiments performed under different cilia and particle properties. This will allow us to shed light on fundamental principles of particle transport in ciliated tissues and develop an assay to test the interaction of engineered nanoparticles with cilia.