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

这个数学科学跨学科资助项目是双重的：在生物科学方面的正规教育培训和在研究实验室环境中的沉浸体验。首席研究员将是弗吉尼亚大学医学院内分泌学部的客座教授。总努力的组成将是75%的课程作业和25%的研究和实验室工作。该奖项的教育和体验部分将使PI能够达到对生物科学的理解，包括实践实验室方面，这对于神经内分泌学前沿的协作互动是必要的。作为预期经验的一个简单例子，对如何在实验室环境中计算生物分子（DNA， RNA，蛋白质，类固醇）浓度及其精度的一般理解将是非常有价值的。动物和人类的繁殖、身体的生长和对压力的反应只是许多关键过程中的三个，这些过程是由下丘脑、脑垂体和远程目标腺产生的（神经）激素调节和控制的。了解这些神经内分泌系统的（不良）功能是当代生物学中一个根本性的重要问题。最令人着迷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态，在大多数情况下是不可观察的（出于实际和伦理原因）。指导颁奖活动的问题将是如何重建这些未被观察到的下丘脑信号，这是理解动物和人类繁殖、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，而且设计所需的学术课程，重点关注计算生物学，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在这些跨学科领域发表的研究论文和博士论文的质量和数量来衡量。该奖项的好处将通过举办会议和研讨会，在应用数学和生理学文献中发表出版物，以及出版一本关于空间和时间生物建模的书来传播。该IGMS项目由MPS多学科活动办公室（OMA）和数学科学司（DMS）联合支持。

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).