The Worm Club: Mechan(obiolog)ical Engineering

Principal Investigators
Miriam Goodman
Beth Pruitt

Postdoctoral Scholars
Juan G. Cueva
Sung-Jin Park
Valeria Vásquez

Ph. D. Students
Joey C. Doll
Bryan Petzold
Pierre Ponce

Undergraduate Researcher
Sanna Ali

	Dr. Beth Pruitt pruitt@stanford.edu Hometown: San Francisco, California University: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B.), Stanford University (Ph. D.) The first experiment Dr. Beth Pruitt and Dr. Miriam Goodman outlined together in the fall of 2002 was written on the back of a napkin after they were introduced to each other through a mutual colleague of theirs, Dr. Greg Kovacs. Since then, the Goodman-Pruitt Mechanobiology Project (better known as “The Worm Club”) has continued Show more... to design experiments using small scale microsystems in the hope of better understanding human genetics and touch sensitivity. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Dr. Pruitt worked in the navy for five years and did postdoctoral work in Lausanne, Switzerland. Dr. Pruitt says that what she enjoys most about working on the Worm Club project is how complete the understanding of C. elegans genetics is and the ability it gives researchers to turn on or off proteins and genes in a clean and controlled way in experimental settings. “Six years ago I never expected to work with worms,” Dr. Pruitt said. “But now there are more questions than Miriam and I will ever have the time to answer, but for now it’s pretty exciting.” Show less...
Dr. Sung-Jin Park sjinpark@stanford.edu Hometown: Seoul, South Korea University: Seoul Nation University (B.S.), Stanford University (Ph. D.) After hearing about the research that the Worm Club was developing using biomicroelectomechanical systems (MEMS), Dr. Sung-Jin Park came to start a new chapter in his life in the Bay Area in 2003 to earn his Ph. D. at Stanford. Dr. Park specifically moved to the United States to work on the Worm Club project in order to apply the work with MEMS he had previously been doing in Seoul in a more concrete Show more... way. Presently, Dr. Park has been working on mechanotransduction of the MEC-4 channels and is now developing tools to apply small forces to the C. elegans. In comparison to his work in Seoul, Dr. Park says that Stanford fosters a less stressful environment and he appreciates that the professors take charge of many parts of projects. “Students have a lot more to do besides research and you can concentrate better on your individual task,” Dr. Park explains. He hopes to get a job in academia or industry now that he is a postdoctoral scholar and, if he gets a chance to, would be interested in working on chemical sensor research. Show less..
	Joey C. Doll jcdoll@stanford.edu Hometown: Healdsburg, California University: University of California, Berkeley (B.S.), Stanford University (Ph. D. candidate) Joey C. Doll is hooked onto the mystery that surrounds the sense of touch. His studies in microelectromechanical systems at Berkeley lead him to Stanford in 2006 where he joined the Worm Club. Doll’s job on the project is to study the sense of touch in individual neurons and hair cells using the tools he creates to apply small forces to both those cells. Beyond this project, Doll’s work as a teacher’s assistant and as an Show more... undergraduate mentor has lead him to become interested in teaching and hopes to one day work in academia. “It’s a cool process to get someone really interested in something and getting that spark going in them,” he said. Doll says that he sees himself moving out of the Bay Area in the future to experience other areas, and hopes to go somewhere closer to the mountains where he could spend more time on his hobbies, which include photography, hiking, and exploring with his dog. Show less...
Bryan Petzold petzold@stanford.edu Hometown: Houston, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Durango, Colorado University: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (B.S.), Stanford University (Ph. D. in progress) When Bryan Petzold came to Stanford University in 2007, he found himself immersed in much more than just his graduate work. The way he describes working with microsystems makes it sound like an art—“It’s fascinating to unravel these biological systems like smell and touch and see that at their core they are not only simple but beautiful, almost Show more... simple to the point of being perfect,” Petzold said. The Worm Club’s research was a perfect match for his passions in biology and microscale engineering and allows him to be more creative in his applications of engineering. He is currently trying to understand the role of body wall muscles in body mechanics in C. elegans and is using atomic force microscopy to study dissociated touch receptor neurons. “It’s work that keeps you on your toes,” he says, “Every day is exciting.” Petzold expects that he’ll continue to do work in academia in the future, and hopes to stay in California where he enjoys the mix of cultures and activities that are available to him. Show less...
	Pierre Ponce pponce@stanford.edu Hometown: Miami, Florida University: Carnegie Mellon University (B.S.), Stanford University (M.S., Ph. D. in progress) Pierre Ponce sees his involvement in the Worm Club project as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for him given that his field of study, electrical engineering, has little to do with biology. Not only does Ponce recognize that the project opens a new realm of possibilities for his work in signal processing and circuit design, but he sees it as something that has the potential of making a difference in the quality of countless lives. This is Show more... the thought that drives Ponce to work his hardest to make a contribution to a body of knowledge that still remains largely unexplained. Ponce is working with Bryan Petzold in making axial stiffness measurementsfor both intact worms and worm segments in the C. elegans. He is currently fabricating the actuators that will do these tests, creating their interface circuitry, and making the sensors that will obtain the required measurements. Although he never expected to do work involving biology, Ponce says he greatly enjoys the interdisciplinary aspect of this project and considers microsystems an exciting area to learn new things and understand more about biological research. Show less...

—Compiled by Stéphanie Keller-Busque,
undergraduate at McGill University

The Worm Club: Mechan(obiolog)ical Engineering

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