Natalie Yudin, Reconstructing signaling networks from experimental data

Reconstructing cellular signaling networks and understanding how they work are major endeavors in cell biology. The scale and complexity of these networks, however, render their analysis using experimental biology approaches alone very challenging. As a result, computational methods have been developed and combined with experimental biology approaches, producing powerful tools for the analysis of these networks.

In recent years, advanced high-throughput technologies such as mass spectrometry and yeast two-hybrid assays have been amassing large amounts of data on molecule interactions. As the available data keeps accumulating at exponential rates, it generates high demand from the biological community for novel ways to interpret it. In my research I analyze different types of experimental data in terms of signaling networks and particularly focus on problems such as network reconstruction, network structural analysis and network simulation or dynamic analysis.

In this talk I will address the importance of network reconstructions. I will discuss some of the existing approaches and present some of the methodology and preliminary results of my own work. I will present this work in the context of the EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor) signaling pathway, that is been shown to be over-expressed in many of the cancer patients.