Systems Biology of Morphogenesis and Spatial Information Flow

系统生物学试图理解生物系统的设计与生物系统的功能之间的关系。 它们被自然选择塑造出来的复杂任务。在生物系统中， 不仅发生在时间上，而且发生在空间领域：细胞和生物体识别空间信息 (e.g.趋化梯度、视觉模式），生成空间信息（身体模式、组织 架构），甚至可以使用空间信息作为计算工具。建议的重点 中心是关于生物系统如何处理空间信息，以及它最终如何用于创造 形态发生（Morphogenesis）该中心将支持一个跨学科研究、技术 开发、培训和推广，旨在进一步发展系统的空间方面 生物学 研究项目分为三个主题，重点关注开发过程中的模式形成， 上皮细胞增殖动力学的控制，以及细胞内 发信号。这些主题内的项目将利用各种方法（遗传学， 生物化学，生物物理学，数学建模，计算）和实验生物（酵母，苍蝇， 斑马鱼、青蛙和小鼠）。技术开发将侧重于数学/计算工具， 光学生物学工具，解决与测量和建模相关的一些独特挑战 空间动态系统培训将包括本科生，研究生和研究生课程 教育下一代系统生物学家的水平。该计划的目标将通过以下方式实现： 加州大学20名教师的共同努力欧文，代表了生物学家，数学家， 物理学家、工程师和计算机科学家。除其他外，该中心的努力预计将 确定不同类型的生物系统如何管理空间世界的共同原则。等 这些见解将对包括人类发育和生育在内的各种健康相关领域产生广泛影响 缺陷，干细胞和再生，正常和肿瘤细胞生长，和基本生理学。

Systems biology seeks to understand relationships between the design of biological systems and the complex tasks they have been molded, by natural selection, to perform. In biological systems, events happen not only in time, but also in the realm of space: Cells and organisms recognize spatial information (e.g. chemotactic gradients, visual patterns), generate spatial information (body patterns, tissue architectures), and may even use spatial information as a computational tool. The focus of the proposed center is on how spatial information is handled by biological systems, and how it ultimately is used to create biological form (morphogenesis). The center will support a program of interdisciplinary research, technology development, training, and outreach aimed at furthering the development of the spatial side of systems biology. The research projects are organized into three themes, focusing on pattern formation during development, the control of proliferative dynamics in epithelia, and spatial aspects of the regulation of intracellular signaling. Projects within these themes will take advantage of a variety of approaches (genetics, biochemistry, biophysics, mathematical modeling, computation) and experimental organisms (yeast, flies, zebrafish, frogs, and mice). Technology development will focus on mathematical/computational tools and optical biology tools that address some of the unique challenges associated with measuring and modeling spatially dynamic systems. Training will include programs at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels for educating the next generation of systems biologists. The goals of the program will be met through the collaborative efforts of twenty faculty at U.C. Irvine, representing a mix of biologists, mathematicians, physicists, engineers and computer scientists. Among other things, the efforts of the center are expected to identify common principles in how different kinds of biological systems manage the spatial world. Such insights will have a broad impact on a variety of health-related areas including human development and birth defects, stem cells and regeneration, normal and tumor cell growth, and basic physiology.