IC Colloquium : Computing Cancer
Event details
| Date | 28.11.2016 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:30 |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
By : Jasmin Fisher - University of Cambridge & Microsoft Research
Abstract :
Cancer is a highly complex cellular state where mutations impact a multitude of signalling pathways operating in different cell types. In recent years it has become apparent that in order to understand and fight cancer, it must be viewed as a system, rather than as a set of cellular activities. This mind shift calls for new techniques that will allow us to investigate cancer as a holistic system. In this talk, I will discuss some of the progress made towards achieving such a system-level understanding using executable modelling of biological behaviours, also known as Executable Biology. I will concentrate on our efforts to better understand aberrant signalling in leukaemias and solid cancer through the following examples: drug target optimization and combination therapies to fight Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia using an innovative platform called BioModelAnalyzer, which allows to prove stabilization of biological systems; spatial hybrid modelling of Glioblastoma (brain tumour) development; state-based modelling of cancer signalling crosstalks and their analysis using model-checking; and reconstruction of blood stem cell programs from single-cell gene expression data using program synthesis. These kind of executable signalling programs further help us identify and understand the driver mechanisms of cancer, which will eventually pave the way for better detection, diagnosis, and treatment of patients, at an individual level.
Bio :
Jasmin Fisher is an Associate Professor of Systems Biology in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. She is also a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the Programming Principles & Tools group. She is a member of the Cambridge Cancer Centre, Cambridge Systems Biology Centre and the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and in 2016 she was elected Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Jasmin received her PhD in Neuroimmunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2003. She then started her work on the application of formal methods to biology as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute (2003-2004), where she worked with David Harel, and then continued to work on the development of novel formalisms and tools that are specifically-tailored for modelling biological processes as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Computer Science at the EPFL in Switzerland (2004-2007), together with Tom Henzinger. In 2007, Jasmin joined the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge. In 2009, she was also appointed a Research Group Leader in the University of Cambridge. Jasmin has devoted her career to develop methods for Executable Biology; her work has inspired the design of many new biological studies. She is a pioneer in using formal verification methods to analyze mechanistic models of cellular processes and disease. Her research group focuses on cutting-edge technologies for modelling the molecular mechanisms of cancer and the development of novel drug therapies, currently also in use by the pharmaceutical industry.
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Abstract :
Cancer is a highly complex cellular state where mutations impact a multitude of signalling pathways operating in different cell types. In recent years it has become apparent that in order to understand and fight cancer, it must be viewed as a system, rather than as a set of cellular activities. This mind shift calls for new techniques that will allow us to investigate cancer as a holistic system. In this talk, I will discuss some of the progress made towards achieving such a system-level understanding using executable modelling of biological behaviours, also known as Executable Biology. I will concentrate on our efforts to better understand aberrant signalling in leukaemias and solid cancer through the following examples: drug target optimization and combination therapies to fight Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia using an innovative platform called BioModelAnalyzer, which allows to prove stabilization of biological systems; spatial hybrid modelling of Glioblastoma (brain tumour) development; state-based modelling of cancer signalling crosstalks and their analysis using model-checking; and reconstruction of blood stem cell programs from single-cell gene expression data using program synthesis. These kind of executable signalling programs further help us identify and understand the driver mechanisms of cancer, which will eventually pave the way for better detection, diagnosis, and treatment of patients, at an individual level.
Bio :
Jasmin Fisher is an Associate Professor of Systems Biology in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. She is also a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the Programming Principles & Tools group. She is a member of the Cambridge Cancer Centre, Cambridge Systems Biology Centre and the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and in 2016 she was elected Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Jasmin received her PhD in Neuroimmunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2003. She then started her work on the application of formal methods to biology as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute (2003-2004), where she worked with David Harel, and then continued to work on the development of novel formalisms and tools that are specifically-tailored for modelling biological processes as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Computer Science at the EPFL in Switzerland (2004-2007), together with Tom Henzinger. In 2007, Jasmin joined the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge. In 2009, she was also appointed a Research Group Leader in the University of Cambridge. Jasmin has devoted her career to develop methods for Executable Biology; her work has inspired the design of many new biological studies. She is a pioneer in using formal verification methods to analyze mechanistic models of cellular processes and disease. Her research group focuses on cutting-edge technologies for modelling the molecular mechanisms of cancer and the development of novel drug therapies, currently also in use by the pharmaceutical industry.
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Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Contact
- Host : M. Odersky