| The study of C. elegans has led to ground-breaking discoveries in gene-function, neuronal circuits, and physiological responses. However, subtle behavioral phenotypes, are often difficult to measure and reproduce across experiments. As part of my dissertation work, I used experimental and computational techniques to quantify and model the dynamics of movement and reproductive behaviors. For movement behaviors, I developed a mathematical approach to correcting the uncertainty of tracking individual animals in a free-moving population, created behavioral profiles for each individual, and used a network to reveal the progression of behavioral changes in the aging process. For reproductive behaviors, I used perturbations in temperature to dissect the key processes that modify the dynamics of the C. elegans reproductive system. The primary goal of creating this set of tools and approaches was to acquire high-quality data for mathematically modeling how individuals respond to environmental stress and modify their behaviors during ageing. |
