Evan Zamir

Assistant Professor

Address:	IBB Building, Room 2306
Phone:	404.385.3679
Fax:	404.385.1397
E-mail:

Education

• B.S., The Johns Hopkins University, 1997
• D.Sc., Washington University, 2003

Research Areas and Descriptors

• Bioengineering; Biomechanics, morphogenesis, cell motility, developmental biology, gastrulation

Background

Dr. Zamir started at Georgia Tech in January 2008 as an Assistant Professor. Prior, he was employed at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.

Early in his graduate education, he was very interested in the idea of tissue engineering — creating artificial living tissues — that could be used for organ replacement or repair. Somewhere along the line, he realized that it would be useful to know more about developmental biology; specifically, to understand how tissues and organs actually arise in the embryo. After all, what better model could there be for studying tissue engineering than the living embryo? Dr. Zamir believes that if we understand the mechanics of embryonic development and morphogenesis, we will better understand how body form and function arise "from scratch," and these fundamental principles can then be applied to design better "adult" tissues.

Research

The primary mission of Dr. Zamir's research program is to uncover the biophysical mechanisms that both drive and regulate tissue morphogenesis and cell motility during embryonic development; he uses gastrulation as an experimental system for studying these phenomena. Gastrulation is, perhaps, the fundamental morphogenetic event that occurs during development of higher organisms, as it involves the formation of mesoderm (the middle of the three primary germ layers), which gives rise to vital internal organs, including the heart. Moreover, in recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that many of the genetic regulatory mechanisms that regulate cellular processes during gastrulation play crucial, if not central, roles in abnormal developmental processes that can occur in children or adults — notably, cancer. Therefore, Dr. Zamir is interested in several areas of human health that, at first glance, may appear unrelated — heart development, cancer, tissue engineering — yet involve many of the same fundamental cellular processes and genetic pathways.

The primary experimental focus of his work involves analyzing the movements of fluorescently labeled cells and extracellular matrix fibrils (ECM) in living avian (bird) embryos. To do this, we use sophisticated time-lapse microscopy to image embryos for several hours up to a few days. In the "movies" captured during these experiments, we see cells moving on a minute-to-minute basis hundreds of microns (orders of magnitude larger than a single cell diameter) from their starting positions — in "real time". His approach involves using biological techniques, such as electroporation for transient cell transfection and microinjection of fluorescent monoclonal antibody labels, as well as computational techniques, such as particle image velocimetry (PIV) and cell tracking.

There are three basic areas of research in Dr. Zamir's lab: Biomechanics of embryonic tissue morphogenesis; regulation of cell motility during gastrulation, cardiac development, and embryonic axis formation; and structure and function of extracellular matrix (ECM) during development and its effects on cell motility and tissue mechanics.

Open questions of interest are: What are the directionality cues, if any, that guide migrating cells toward their eventual tissue position-fate? What factors regulate mesenchymal cell motility (i.e., dynamics of migration), and, What biophysical or mechanical signals determine where, when and how cells differentiate? Cells are greatly influenced by the mechanical properties of the ECM. Although there are many studies demonstrating the effects of ECM mechanical properties on cell morphology, motility, and adhesion in vitro, there are relatively fewer in vivo, and still less in situ (i.e., in living embryos). He has the tools to examine the dynamics of cell-ECM interactions directly in living warm-blooded embryos.

Applying the tools and theories of engineering and other physical or quantitative sciences to study, simulate, or model biological systems is not a trivial endeavor. The stochastic nature of biology can be quite far removed from the assumptions of ideality that engineers typically employ to simplify complex problems. At the same time, biologists often do not appreciate, and even underestimate, the power that quantitative studies or models can bring to their own areas of research. Navigating the waters between these vastly different paradigms may be difficult, but a practical cross-disciplinary scientist can chart this course successfully. Dr. Zamir wants to instill this mentality in students. At the same time, he wants to engage and challenge students who share his enthusiasm for understanding how engineering principles are applied in living organisms. Indeed, engineering students may actually be more likely to challenge existing biology dogma and this is not necessarily a bad thing!

Distinctions

• Faculty of 1000 Citation, 2007
• American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2005-2006
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Bioengineering Division) Richard Skalak Best Paper Award, 2005
• The US National Committee on Biomechanics, The Second US National Symposium on Frontiers in Biomechanics Merit Certificate of Recognition, 2005
• American Association of Anatomists Presley-Zeiss Postdoctoral Platform Presentation Award, Runner-Up, 2005.
• The University of Kansas Medical Center Biomedical Research Training Program Award, 2004-2005
• Whitaker Foundation for Biomedical Engineering Graduate Fellowship, 1999-2003

Representative Publications

• E. A. Zamir, et al. 2006. Mesodermal Cell Displacements during Avian Gastrulation are due to Both Individual Cell-Autonomous and Convective Tissue Movements. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103, 19806-19811.
• E. A. Zamir, A. Czirok, B. J. Rongish, and C. D. Little. 2005. A Digital Image-Based Method for Computational Tissue Fate Mapping during Early Avian Morphogenesis. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 33, 854-865.
• E. A. Zamir and L. A. Taber. 2004. Material Properties and Residual Stress in the Stage 12 Chick Heart during Cardiac Looping. The Journal of Biomechanical Engineering 126, 823-830.
• E. A. Zamir and L. A. Taber. 2004. On the Effects of Residual Stress in Microindentation Tests of Soft Tissue Structures. The Journal of Biomechanical Engineering 126, 276-283. (2005 Best Paper Award)
• E. A. Zamir, V, Srinivasan, R. Perucchio, L. A. and Taber. 2003. Mechanical Asymmetry in the Embryonic Chick Heart during Looping. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 31, 1327-1336.