Cell migration—how, when, and why cells move—has important implications for understanding development and diseases such as blood cell disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and metastatic cancer. Michelle Starz-Gaiano, associate professor of biological sciences, has learned a great deal about cell migration from observing Drosophila melanogaster, the humble fruit fly, in her lab. She’s also learned that experimental tools have their limitations.

“We have fantastic genetic tools in Drosophila, and we have great live imaging, so we can get pretty far doing that,” Starz-Gaiano says. “But then we encounter things that we can’t explain.”

That’s where her decade-plus collaboration with Brad Peercy, associate professor of mathematics, comes in. In their partnership, Peercy develops mathematical models to represent the movement of cells across developing eggs in the fly ovary. Now, a three-year, $370,000 NSF grant will support the duo as they combine their expertise to further explore the regulation of cell movement.

“I think this project has really big implications for how we think about development and how organs and tissues function,” Starz-Gaiano says, “because it’s looking at aspects that people haven’t yet paid attention to.”

A fresh perspective

Scientists can learn a lot about cell migration through experimental approaches like those Starz-Gaiano employs. However, some experiments are too complex or too expensive to attempt without a powerful reason to believe they will reveal new and useful information.

Turning to mathematical modeling has been particularly helpful for pointing wet lab scientists in the right direction before they invest in complicated experiments. “The collaboration has been incredible in making the best predictions for how to explain confusing results. It’s enabled us to narrow down the set of things to test,” Starz-Gaiano says.

Brad Peercy working from home this fall. Photo courtesy Brad Peercy.

For example, cell migration in the fruit fly ovary happens in several complex stages. Chemical signaling and the geometry of the ovary both play a role in regulating the process. “There are lots of different interesting features that are ripe for having a mathematical framework put around them,” Peercy says, “and the math can sometimes point to looking at something a little bit differently than biologists might otherwise.”

Now the challenge is that the math has pointed to certain attributes of the migration process that may be impossible to test in a live organism with today’s technology. “The models that Brad’s group has made are so compelling that now we have to figure out if we can show that biologically,” Starz-Gaiano says. “That’s a big focus of some of the work in the lab now.”

Uncharted territory

This new grant focuses on the math side of the work. Peercy and Starz-Gaiano have been collaborating since 2008, when they partnered to work with undergraduates as part of the former, NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences program.

Since then, Peercy and his team have developed several models for different aspects of the cell migration process. The next step is “integrating some of the models that we’ve already developed into a more comprehensive model of the system,” he explains. For that, Peercy and Starz-Gaiano will benefit from the computational expertise of Matthias Gobbert, professor of mathematics, who is another co-investigator on the grant. He will help make the computational processing more efficient, and therefore feasible in a reasonable amount of time.

Another aim of the project is to further investigate a set of chemical reactions, known as a signaling cascade, involved in triggering cell migration. “The signaling cascade that the model is for is very well conserved across species, and it’s implicated in a lot of human diseases,” Starz-Gaiano says. “The model pointed to a certain kind of regulation that hasn’t been very well explored, so we want to follow up on that.”

The team will also work to better understand how the restricted space of the egg chamber affects how cells and chemical signals move, and how that affects cell migration. “Being able to map that complicated geometry into a computational framework is something we’re interested in,” Peercy says. For this part of the project, they’re collaborating with Tagide deCarvalho, director of UMBC’s Keith R. Porter Imaging Facility.

Looking at the space between cells is a new area of research. “People haven’t done that,” Starz-Gaiano says. “They just think this one sends a signal and that one gets it and it’s over, and we’re saying, well, what happens in between?” Failure of a signal to reach its final destination can contribute to some birth defects, Starz-Gaiano explains. She also wonders if the same could be true for some cancers.

A new approach

As scientific discovery marches onward, researchers in fields that were once seemingly disparate find themselves relying on each other more and more. “The biology is insufficient to capture what’s going on, so we need different approaches,” Starz-Gaiano says.

Collaborations between researchers in different fields can be tricky to navigate, as each side learns to speak a new language and engage in different ways of thinking. But when everyone involved is on board, the results can be groundbreaking.

“You see strong collaborations between experimentalists and theoreticians when they are willing to sit in uncomfortable situations,” Peercy says. That might mean a biologist thinking about differential equations or a mathematician trying to understand the reproductive process of a fruit fly.

Peercy and Starz-Gaiano’s easy rapport and long history of working together makes it clear that they’ve crossed that bridge and are comfortable taking on the unknown together. They recognize the benefits that combining their unique research skill sets can offer.

“The only way that you can solve complex problems now is to use multiple strategies at the same time,” Starz-Gaiano says. “And increasingly, that’s what we’re faced with in biology—these problems are too complicated for one method to tackle them.”

Banner image: Michelle Starz-Gaiano (right) works with Jeffrey Inen ’18 in her lab. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Spring 2021 Registration – Advising Appointment Information for Current Students:

All students must meet with an advisor in order to obtain registration clearance for the upcoming spring semester.

Engineering (chemical, computer, mechanical) and Computer Science majors and Pre-majors, please visit the COEIT Advising websitefor appointment instructions.

COEIT Advisors will start granting advising clearance on Tuesday, October 13th. Faculty advisors may wait until the schedule of classes is posted on October 26th.

Information Systems and Business Technology Administration majors (or students intending to change to one of these majors) are advised in the Information Systems Department. Please go herefor more information.

If you are changing your major to a major outside the College of Engineering and Information Technology, please contact the respective department of your new major for advising appointment instructions. Please remember to complete a Declaration of Major form for your new major.

Winter Session Classes:

Winter Session registration opens October 19th. Students do not need to meet with an advisor prior to registering for winter courses unless they have questions or concerns. If you intend to take a course off-campus during the winter, a Verification of Transferability Formis required in advance of taking the summer course.

New Students Admitted for Spring Semester:

Newly admitted students for the spring semester may not register for courses until Winter Orientation. Please sign up for Orientation here.

Questions?

Please contact an advisorfor additional information.

Recently DoIT was notified of a job scam email campaign from a compromised UMBC email account. The email has the subject line “WorkStudy!” and is presenting a fake job offer to the user. Below is an example of the job scam email, with the name and email of the From and To removed for privacy reasons.

Please note that the email is coming from a compromised UMBC account but the reply-to in the headers is set to <careerjobsdepartment@outlook.com>. This means that if the user responds to the email they would not be responding to the UMBC email but instead the scammer directly at <careerjobsdepartment@outlook.com>.

If you do receive this or a similar email that you suspect is a scam, please do not click on any URL or reply. Either of those actions confirms to the sender that your email address is valid. Please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970

To read more articles published by DOIT visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice. 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19

Below is an example of a scam email that has recently been reported to DoIT. The email below the scammer tries to impersonate a member of the UMBC by setting the From email name to that of a UMBC email user. The name has been removed for privacy reasons. 

This recent phishing attempt has the scammer trying to impersonate a member of the UMBC. These emails are a bit more personalized with the scammer saying “Hello <Users Name>” as well as having the impersonated name at the bottom of the email in the email’s signature.

This email does show some red flags of being a phishing email. First, the email itself is coming from a Gmail account and not a UMBC email account. Second, the email itself has a sense of urgency, urging the user to respond at the “earliest opportunity.”

If you do receive this or a similar email that you suspect is a scam, please do not click on any URL or reply. Either of those actions confirms to the sender that your email address is valid. Please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970

To read more articles published by DOIT visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice. 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19

DoIT has recently been notified of a job scam coming from a compromised UMBC email account, below is an example of that message that was being sent. The subject line of the job scam email is “_Available.” The name and email address of the From and To users were removed for privacy reasons.

Please note that the email above is coming from a UMBC email account, but within the email headers it shows that the reply-to is set to a <charlenabolinlyco21@gmail.com>. This means that if the user tries to respond to this email they would not be emailing the compromised UMBC account but instead the scammer directly at <charlenabolinlyco21@gmail.com>.

If you do receive this or a similar email that you suspect is a scam, please do not click on any URL or reply. Either of those actions confirms to the sender that your email address is valid. Please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970

To read more articles published by DOIT visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice. 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19

Tracking Code Scam

The Better Business Bureau warns of a scam where malicious actors aim to deceive online shoppers into paying for goods that do not actually exist. This is done by the scammers creating fake websites that are selling products with great deals, usually selling brand named goods at a significant discount.

If the user decides to take a chance and make the purchase, the site is said to instruct the user to pay through PayPal. After checkout the user will receive a tracking number from UPS, FedEx, or another shipping service. After awhile if the user checks the package is said to be delivered but to the wrong address.

If the user tries to contact the website they will learn that the site is either unresponsive or unhelpful. Some cases, the site does not even provide contact information and in others they just do not respond to any emails or calls.

Some of the victims of this scam reported filing a claim with PayPal for their money back but because the scammer technically shipped the package and the tracking number marked it as delivered, PayPal was rejecting their claims.

The articles linked below gives some tips on spotting Package Delivery Scams and other online shopping related scams:

• Before paying, know your rights and responsibilities. In any type of scam, scammers might try to take advantage of what consumers do not know when it comes to processing payment. Do not make a purchase from any seller that seems suspicious and do not assume that you’ll be protected no matter what.

• Before buying online, confirm the site has real contact information. Make sure the seller has a working phone number and address on the website, so you can contact them in case of a problem.

• If the price seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Be wary if the item is selling for significantly lower than what you have seen elsewhere.

• Make sure you know who you are dealing with, they advise you check the spelling and the domain names. As well as to google the website to see if the website has had any complaints.

• Scam websites usually have poor grammar and spelling, a lack of information, and capital letters in the middle of sentences.

• Make sure the website is using https:// as a trusted website will have a secure domain so that your information is safe. Make sure to also check the address bar for a “not secure” message as that is another red flag.

• Check for the website's privacy policy to understand what personal information is being requested. If there isn’t a privacy policy that is a red flag.

• Research the business first to make sure it is legitimate before giving them any of your personal and/or financial information.

For more information, please check out: 

https://www.bbb.org/article/scams/21097-scam-alert-tracking-code-trick-costs-online-shoppers

https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/22474-bbb-warning-be-careful-purchasing-from-unknown-websites-during-covid-19

https://www.bbb.org/article/tips/14040-bbb-tip-smart-shopping-online

To read more articles published by DOIT visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice. 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19