Chemical Signal Detection:  Filter Properties of            Chemoreceptor Organs
{'Code': '08090200', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'BIO', 'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'IOS', 'LongName': 'Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Christopher Platt'}
This is a project to study some of the physical factors involved                in sensing of chemicals.  The basic issue being approached is how               the chemicals that are being sensed are transported to the                      receptor organs, and how the processes are modified by                          evolutionary specializations in morphology and behavior.                        The animal model of chemical sensing that is used is the                        detection of amino acids by lobster olfactory receptors.  In                    these animals the amino acids, which are feeding stimuli, diffuse               to the receptors.  In doing so, they finally must diffuse through               very thin layers of fluid adjacent to the organs themselves.                    Different chemoreceptor organs, even in the same animal, can have               dramatically different morphology that can result in different                  diffusion layers.  In addition, the animal's behaviors in                       sampling the environment (flicking and sniffing, for example),                  affect the boundary layer and also help to minimize the                         confounding effects of turbulence in the environment.                           The project will include testing a computational model of                       receptor organ filtering by measuring and manipulating diffusion                layers in different chemoreceptor organs and measuring the time                 courses of responses in the cells in the living animals.  Thus,                 it will result in an understanding of the structure and function                of diffusion layers and of their contribution to analysis of                    chemical signals.                                                               The principles of filtering being studied here in the lobster are               important components of all chemical sensing systems.  They are                 little studied and poorly understood, and the conclusions drawn                 in this study should have wide generalizability to other systems                as we..
{'FirstName': 'Jelle', 'LastName': 'Atema', 'EmailAddress': 'atema@bu.edu', 'StartDate': '08/15/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Trustees of Boston University', 'CityName': 'BOSTON', 'ZipCode': '022151300', 'PhoneNumber': '6173534365', 'StreetAddress': '881 COMMONWEALTH AVE', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Massachusetts', 'StateCode': 'MA'}
{'Code': '1185', 'Text': 'SENSORY SYSTEMS'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8812952.xml'}