This internship project aims to elucidate the interplay between systemic and cell-autonomous responses to temperature stress, using the nematode C. elegans as a model organism. Our group has established an experimental setup in which animals can be live-imaged at high resolution in a microfluidic device, while: (1) fast global temperature changes are applied and/or (2) temperature can be raised ONLY in the head or tail region of the animal Our preliminary data indicates that localized heating of the head and not the tail of the animal induces the formation of stress granules in a systemic fashion, even in the cold side of the animal, within minutes, suggesting a role for fast inter-tissue communication in organizing a body-wide cellular stress response. In this internship, by imaging fluorescent reporter lines for the HSR as well as the formation of stress granules, and subsequent quantitative image analysis, we will explore how localized heat can be translated into the organism-wide activation of stress responses and how the dynamics of this activation differs from a scenario in which the entire organism is exposed to the temperature stress.