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01/18/05 Colloquium
Dr. Hugh MacMillan
School of Computational Sciences at FSU
School of Computational Sciences at FSU
Mathematical Challenges Regarding Cell Cycle
and Cell Fate Control During Development
Abstract:
The future integration of bioinformatics and systems biology casts an
imposing shadow on pure, applied and computational mathematics.
Attempting to quantify the influence of DNA damage and repair on
developmental timing during cortical neurogenesis serves as instructive
of the challenges mathematical biology faces. In first reviewing
this specific cellular context and the molecular bases of
proliferation, differentiation, and death, we address forms of model
uncertainty due to reduction in both spatial and network complexity.
Next, two nested qualitative networks and, employing the simplest of
these, two formulations are presented, along with a discussion of
alternative mathematical translations. We then outline a model
validation framework that relies on a portfolio of objective
functionals to bridge multiple scales of biological data. Throughout,
we advocate a perspective that formulating models of cell fate control
is an inverse problem in need of a systematic computational framework
that is readily integrated with ever-improving experimental data.
Dr. MacMillan received the Ph.D. in June, 2001 in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Presently, he has a postdoctoral position in the School of Computational Sciences at FSU. Prior to this, he was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow at UC San Diego.
