From Cellular Networks to Population Disease Patterns: A Systems Approach

by Natali Gulbahce

Harvard Medical School and Northeastern University

Date

Friday, April 3, 2009

Time

3:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m.

Place

Informatics East (I2), Room 130

Abstract:  In the post-genomic era it has become clear that the genetic code is not sufficient to decipher how cells function and diverse phenotypical behaviors emerge. Complex cellular and environmental interactions largely determine the genotype-phenotype relationships. In this talk, I will describe a systems biology approach that provides an integrative view of known cellular interactions and disease phenotypes. In particular, I will talk about metabolic modeling and virus-host interaction networks in the context of diseases and population disease patterns.

Biography:  Natali Gulbahce is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical school and Northeastern University with Laszlo Barabasi. She obtained her Ph.D. from Clark University where her thesis focus was statistical mechanics. Afterwards she did a postdoc at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at LANL where she became increasingly interested in biological problems and networks. Her current research involves the modeling of large scale biological networks and their emerging global properties. The aim of her research is to increase the understanding of the effects of perturbations on cellular networks and the pathways to complex diseases.

Colloquium Provided By:

the School of Informatics