Interdisciplinary Grants in the Mathematical Sciences: Reconstructing Unobserved Hypothalamic Neuroendocrine Signals

数学科学项目的跨学科资助是双重的：生物科学的正规教育培训和沉浸在研究实验室环境中的经验。 主要研究者将是弗吉尼亚大学医学院内分泌科的客座教授。 总努力的组成将是75%的课程作业和25%的研究和实验室接触。 该奖项的教育和经验部分将使PI达到生物科学的理解，包括实际的实验室方面，这是必要的合作互动在神经内分泌学的前沿。 作为预期经验的一个简单例子，对生物分子如何以及精确度的一般理解在实验室环境中计算（DNA、RNA、蛋白质、类固醇）浓度将是非常有价值的。动物和人类的繁殖、身体生长和对压力的反应只是许多关键过程中的三个，其由下丘脑、脑下垂体和远端靶腺中产生的（神经）激素调节和控制。 了解这些神经内分泌系统的功能是当代生物学中一个基本的重要问题。 最吸引人和最具挑战性的方面之一是，下丘脑产生的神经激素最终控制了这些系统的大部分动力学，在大多数情况下（出于实践和道德原因）是不可观察的。 指导奖项活动的问题将是如何重建这种未观察到的下丘脑信号，这是理解动物和人类生殖，生长和生理应激控制的关键环节。 该奖项将使PI获得必要的知识，不仅在神经内分泌学的前沿合作，而且还设计所需的学术课程，重点是计算生物学，生物信息学和统计遗传学的重要领域。 该奖项的成功可以通过发表的研究论文和博士学位的质量和数量来衡量。针对这些跨学科领域的论文。 该奖项的好处将通过会议和研讨会演讲的介绍，应用数学和生理学文献的出版物以及关于空间和时间生物建模的书籍的出版来传播。 该IGMS项目由MPS多学科活动办公室（OMA）和数学科学部（DMS）共同支持。

This Interdisciplinary Grant in the Mathematical Sciences project is twofold: formal educational training in the biological sciences and the experience of immersion in a research laboratory environment. The principal investigator will be a visiting faculty member in the Division of Endocrinolgy, School of Medicine, University of Virginia. The composition of the total effort will be 75% coursework and 25% research and laboratory exposure. The educational and experiential components of this award will allow the PI to reach that understanding of the biological sciences, including practical laboratory aspects, which isnecessary for collaborative interactions at the frontier of neuroendocrinolgy. As a simple example of the anticipated experience, a general understanding of how, and the precision by which, biomolecular (DNA, RNA, protein, steroid) concentrations are calculated within a laboratory environment will be enormously valuable.Animal and human reproduction, bodily growth, and the response to stress are but three of the many critical processes, which are regulated and controlled by (neuro-)hormones produced in the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and remote target glands. Understanding the (mal)functioning of such neuroendocrine systems is a fundamentally important problem in contemporary biology. One of the most fascinating and challenging aspects is that the neurohormones produced in the hypothalamus, which ultimately control much of the resulting dynamics of these systems, are unobservable in most cases (for practical and ethical reasons). Guiding the award activities will be the issue of how to reconstruct such unobserved hypothalamic signals, a key link in understanding animal and human reproduction, growth, and control of physiological stress. This award will allow the PI to gain the knowledge necessary not only for collaboration at the frontier of neuroendocrinolgy, but also to design needed academic courses focusing on the important areas of computational biology, bioinformatics, and statistical genetics. The success of this award can be measured by the quality and number of both published research papers and Ph.D. theses directed in these interdisciplinary areas. The benefits of the award will be disseminated by the presentation of conference and seminar talks, publications in both the applied mathematics and the physiology literature, and publication of a book on biological modeling in space and time. This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).