The Stupidly Effective Genius of Nature

- Researchers discover how nature enables cells to act intelligently

May 12^th, 2015 

  Researchers at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have discovered a Lévy walk pattern of movement when living cells eat. When the food is transported within the cell by so-called endosomal active transport, it is the same mathematical pattern of movement that many animals follow when foraging for food.

  A Lévy walk or flight, named after a French mathematician Paul Lévy, is a mix of long trajectories and short random movements. Numerous short movements are made within a small area, and occasionally a long stride to a distant area, where the action is repeated. This particular motion pattern is observed in humans and animals.

  While scientists had previously studied the pattern in humans and animals of inherent intelligence, this research is the first to identify this pattern of movement in molecular motors.

  Steve Granick, Director of the IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter and one of the authors of the research, explained why it’s so interesting and important. “We didn’t want to repeat what other people did in the past. People knew that jellyfish, sharks, birds, and people can execute this important process (Lévy walk). We discovered that even molecules without a brain can do the same thing. And we discovered the secret of how it’s accomplished.”

  Molecular motors are responsible for the intracellular transport of many cargoes. The researchers observed how these motors carry cargo (endosome) as they move along microtubules, an intracellular highway network.

  The rule they discovered is this. When molecular motors carry cargo, their purpose is to find a destination. They thoroughly explore their immediate environment. If a destination is not found, they travel further, repeating the action until a destination is found. “Nature is more clever than we are. It finds this efficient way to engineer this marvelous result without being smart, without (using any pre-existing) memory, and it saves them energy” added Director Granick.

  “The findings of our study may help us to better understand our cells and how our body is engineered” he went on. “At the IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter in Korea, the rule we discovered holds promise to engineer new kinds of artificial active materials.”

  The research was supported in part by the Institute for Basic Science (South Korea) and the US Department of Energy in collaboration with the University of Illinois. It was published online, in the prestigious journal, Nature Materials (Impact Factor of 36.4) March 30, 2015.

###

Notes for editors

-         References

* Title of Paper: Memoryless self-reinforcing directionality in endosomal active transport within living cells. DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4239

* Authors: Kejia Chen¹, BoWang^2,3*† and Steve Granick^1,2,4,5,6*

* ¹Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. ²Department of Materials Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. ³Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. ⁴Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. ⁵Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. ⁶IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter,UNIST, Ulsan 689-798, South Korea. †Present address: Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. *e-mail: wangbo@stanford.edu; sgranick@ibs.re.kr

-         For further information or to request media assistance, please contact: Mr. Shi Bo Shim, Head of Department of Communications, Institute for Basic Science (+82-42-878-8189; sibo@ibs.re.kr) or Ms. Sunny Kim, Department of Communications, Institute for Basic Science (+82-42-878-8135; Sunnykim@ibs.re.kr)

-         About Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
The IBS was founded in 2011 by the government of the Republic of Korea. With the sole purpose of driving forward the development of basic science in Korea, IBS will be comprised of a total of 50 research centers in all fields of basic science, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, life science, earth science and interdisciplinary science. IBS has launched 24 research centers as of January 2015. There are one mathematics, eight physics, six chemistry, seven life science, and two interdisciplinary research centers.