Colloquium

Scheduled Talk - September 28, 2009 - [ 3:00PM in DH 1064 ]

Amina A Qutub
Department of Bioengineering
Rice University

"Systems Biology of Hypoxia: Intracellular Signaling to Capillary Sprouting"

Abstract:
Our response to oxygen regulates how we develop, adapt, and age. Cellular hypoxia, or low oxygen levels, plays a key role in five of the leading causes of death in the developed world —cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, and diabetes. It is also important in obesity, and critical to physiological conditions like exercise and wound-healing. To better understand the complex signaling pathways linking hypoxia with health and disease, the Qutub lab uses computational modeling coupled with in vitro experiments to characterize factors regulating hypoxic response and capillary dynamics. We use the models to test quantitative hypotheses, generate new ideas for experimental pursuit and advance therapeutic design.

Hypoxia–inducible factor 1 (HIF1), in response to hypoxia, upregulates genes involved in cell growth, glycolysis and inflammation. Ongoing projects focused on HIF1 and hypoxic response include: a network model of signaling during hypoxia-ischemia; a cell-level agent-based model of capillary growth in response to hypoxia; brain microvasculature modeling and a collaborative project applied to pediatric osteosarcoma. This talk highlights how quantitative systems biology can uncover mechanisms of hypoxic response and adaptation within the microvasculature.