The next "Rush Hour" will be Tuesday, March 30th, 12:00 - 1:00, in the Stafford Auditorium in the Rector Science Complex.
Professors Jeff Forrester and Mike Roberts will present:
Math, Bio, Cancer, and Collaboration: An Integrative Approach to a Complex Problem
In his 1971 State of the Union address, President Nixon declared a "War on Cancer" and later that year signed the National Cancer Act into law. In the following three decades, much progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of cancer, but this constellation of diseases remains a leading cause of death worldwide (WHO). The advent of “–omic” technologies has yielded powerful new tools for studying this complex disease and has altered the required toolsets for molecular research to include additional mathematical and computational skills. Our NSF-funded program seeks to train students in cancer biology and the mathematical techniques required to analyze large data sets and model complex biological processes. Through coursework and a year-long research experience, we hope to give students an introduction to systems biology and the promise it presents for the future of biological research.