Title: ``Computing Life''
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Arnold, Professor, Department of Genetics (and Statistics), University of Georgia
Place: LILLY G126; Tuesday, 4:30pm

Abstract

In the new millennium, the challenge is using sequenced genomes to predict how living systems function. Genomics is now a data-driven science that allows the complete genetic blueprint and all RNA and protein levels in the cell (i.e. RNA and protein profiles) to be determined in microbial systems. The promise of genomics is using the genetic blueprint and the RNA and protein profiles to understand complex traits like development, sex, biological clocks, and pathogenicity. The goal of this talk is to sketch a program for how to compute emergent properties of fungal systems from chemical kinetics network models of DNA, RNA, and proteins. These models will be identified by fitting them to the observed RNA and protein profiles of the fungal system. An immediate application of these kinetics models will be the engineering of biochemical reaction networks for their response to antifungals or for biochemical production of antibiotics and other products to control and direct the process of gene-validated product discovery. In short, the goal of this talk is to sketch how to make genomics and its application hypothesis-driven through metabolomics.