Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/S09753/01
Title:	Waves and Coupling in Discontinuous Excitable Media
Principal Investigator:	Taylor, Professor AF
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Sch of Chemistry
Organisation:	University of Leeds
Scheme:	First Grant Scheme Pre-FEC
Starts:	01 May 2003	Ends:	31 October 2004	Value (£):	81,121
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Chemical Biology Gas & Solution Phase Reactions
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Spontaneously-oscillatory and excitable systems occur widely in chemical and biological situations. This proposal seeks to determine the behaviour of assemblies of such systems in inhomogeneous or discontinuous environments, which are typical in biology. A relatively well-understood chemical model reaction - the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction - which can be more easily manipulated than corresponding biological systems, will be exploited to reveal responses that are generic to the class of excitable and spontaneously-oscillatory systems. In the first part of the project, the mechanism of signal transmission in excitable media will be investigated through a study of the propagation of reaction-diffusion waves across gaps in the reaction domain. A critical gap width will be established such that waves are unable to propagate across a gap of larger width. Preliminary experiments have shown the existence of complex behaviour close to the critical conditions. This part of the project will also address theoretical studies which suggest that gaps may act co-operatively to enable the passage of a chemical wave over a series of gaps. The second part of the project considers coupled arrays of distributed reaction sites. Global coupling is currently of considerable interest in electrochemical systems, heterogeneous catalysis, and neural networks. Coupling of excitable cells (neural, myocardial) is of extreme importance in the regular and irregular functioning of biological systems. A specially designed reactor will be constructed, and coupling achieved through the use of light and a photosensitive catalyst.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.leeds.ac.uk