CAREER:A hybrid experimental and computational program to elucidate the molecular differentiation program of a model stem cell

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).0846876VarnerIntellectual Merit: This project will provide tools and methodologies that will enable advancements in the formulation, identification and analysis of mechanistic mathematical models of protein-protein and protein-DNA interaction networks. Although the experimental system being explored is a simple adult stem-cell, the proposed tools are network agnostics, thus, they can be applied to the study of virtually any network of interest in cell-biology. It is the earnest hope of the Principal Investigator to demonstrate that large-scale modeling has a definitive role in biomolecular engineering and to provide tools that allow non-computational scientists to use modeling and mathematical analysis in their research efforts. The proposed research is a critical first-step toward this goal.Broader Impact: The project will result in the development of computational tools for the modeling and analysis of stem-cell differentiation networks and will advance the state of the art of mechanistic modeling of networks relevant to open questions in cell-biology. The project is ideally suited for cross-disciplinary education of graduate and undergraduate students. The research is experimentally and computationally focused and will attempt to advance the state of the art in each these two aspects.