Conveners
Biochemistry, signalling & mathematical techniques
- Iulia Martina Bulai (University of Padova,Italy)
Akt/PKB (Protein Kinase B) is a major crosstalk node in the mammalian cell. Located as the juncture of several key signalling pathways, it is involved in many cellular processes, such as glucose metabolism, cell growth and the suppression of apotosis. Dysregulated Akt signalling is implicated in a range of human disorders, from diabetes to cancer.
Initially, Akt is synthesised in the...
A biochemical system is a biological system consisting of a collection of chemical compounds interacting with each other. One way to model and analyze a biochemical system is by using S-systems, which are coupled ordinary differential equations based on power-law formalism. In this work, we do a parameter estimation on an S-system model called HS96. This model, proposed by Hlavacek and...
Many biological systems rely on both long range and short range signals in order to produce proper cell patterns during development. These patterns, such as alternating cell fates, are defined by different gene and protein expression levels. However, the relative contribution of these two signalling modes in establishing proper patterns is not well understood. Using vulval development of two...
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Australia; responsible for 30% of deaths. Diseases that affect the heart are commonly accompanied by a condition known as hypertrophy — heart enlargement through cell growth. This condition leads to uneven heart beats and, eventually, heart failure.
Hypertrophy is regulated by the flow of calcium ions within the cell. Calcium dynamics...
Robustness, and the ability to function and thrive amid changing and unfavourable environments, is a fundamental requirement for all living systems. Moreover, it has been a long-standing mystery how the extraordinarily complex communication networks inside living cells, comprising thousands of different interacting molecules, are able to exhibit such remarkable robustness since complexity is...
From the foraging strategies of large organisms, to T-cells hunting pathogens, to proteins examining strands of DNA, carefully optimised search processes are a phenomenon that pervades throughout nature at many scales. Often these search processes do not proceed in isolation, but instead many instances proceed in parallel, competing for space and resources. In this talk I shall discuss...
