Modelling changes in genomic network structure during development and oncogenesis

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My project is highly interdisciplinary, which means that I work closely with specialists in both the mathematical and biological sciences, researching topics at the cutting edge of both fields. I work on statistical network models, which are basically mathematical descriptions of patterns of interactions between discrete entities such as friends on Facebook, or in my research, human genes.Every cell in your body has the same set of genes - but the reason that a cell on the end of your finger looks very different to a cell in your brain is that different sets of genes are switched on and off in the finger compared to the brain. In other words, we have a set of finger-specific genes, and a set of brain-specific genes, and by switching these genes on and off at the right time the cell is able to gain the correct physical characteristics for its location in the body. This switching on and off of genes is itself controlled by the influence of other genes.Friends on Facebook group together naturally, and so do genes which interact with and influence each other. Just as friendship groups can change and develop over time, so can these interacting groups of genes. So when these gene groupings change in an organism, it's often reflected in some physical change, which might be healthy (for example natural growth), or unhealthy (for example unnatural growth, like cancer).My research is particularly focused on understanding mechanisms like these, by which genes control healthy growth in the brain, and on the close connections between this sort of healthy growth, and unhealthy growth in cancer. We hope that by understanding these healthy mechanisms better, we can also shed light on these deadly diseases. So understanding more about these microscopic mechanisms controlled by our genes is very interesting in itself, but it can also help us to understand more about serious illnesses.