03. June 2015, 10:00 a.m.

Hans-Knöll-Institute, SR Alexander Flemming (A8 E-40)

Multi-scale and multi-resolution models as an integrated tool in experimental biology: applications to diabetes and its complications

Dr. Gunnar Cedersund (Linköping University, Integrative Systems Biology Group, Sweden)

I will present examples of how we have used new and rapidly evolving approaches to mathematical modelling and systems biology to learn things from data that could not have been learned otherwise. The key feature with our modelling is that we combine small-scale mechanistic minimal models and hypothesis testing – which we use to learn details and mechanisms – with large-scale multi-level and multi-resolution models, which are used to get a comprehensive and useful description of the systems as a whole. We have used this approach to unravel the mechanisms of insulin resistance in human adipocytes, and we are now embedding these models in a big model that incorporates all 15000 phosphorylation sites that respond to insulin. That cell-level model also links to the whole-body level, and to long-term disease progression and drug effects.
We have also use this modelling to aid clinical research, e.g. for diagnosis of liver diseases and for predicting the risk of heart attacks. We therefore use modelling both to further the basic biological understanding, and to make a difference for real end-usage in clinic and pharma.

The talk is intended to be understandable and of interest both for biologists, clinicians, and mathematicians.