Modeling and Control in Cancer Genomics

智力优势：这个项目的目的是利用和调整控制论的思想来开发治疗癌症的改进方法。这种疾病起源于分子水平上的异常基因功能，因此，诊断和治疗癌症的技术必须考虑到个体之间的遗传差异。不幸的是，目前使用的治疗癌症的方法都是一刀切的类型，因此，它们的成功率很低且不可预测也就不足为奇了。这个项目将研究改善这种状况的可能性。研究人员和他们的合作者已经在相关问题上获得了大量的理论结果，目前正在进行验证实验。该项目将解决未来两到三年实验进展中出现的许多理论挑战。更广泛的影响：本项目的研究成果将通过组织会议、讲习班和短期课程向社区传播。我们将加倍努力，确保我们的研究和教育活动惠及少数族裔，具体做法是：(1)向少数族裔院校提供基因组学课程；（ii）积极与当地研究人员合作；（三）招募更多的女性和少数族裔学生加入我们的实验室。我们目前在这些方向上的努力即使不进一步加强，也将保持在同一水平。我们的工作最重要的长期影响将是用个性化定制的、来自工程方法的更好的癌症治疗方法取代现有的一刀切的癌症治疗方法。

Intellectual Merit: The aim of this project is to use and adapt ideas from Control Theory to develop improved methods for treating cancer. The disease originates from aberrant gene functioning at the molecular level and, therefore, it is crucial that techniques for diagnosing and treating cancers take the genetic differences between individuals into account. Unfortunately, the currently used therapies for cancer are of the one-size-fits-all type and, therefore, it is not surprising that their success rate is quite low and unpredictable. This project will examine the possibility of remedying this situation. The researchers and their collaborators have already obtained substantial theoretical results on the related problems, and validation experiments are currently under way. This project will address the many theoretical challenges that will arise as the experiments progress over the next two to three years. Broader Impacts: The results of the research resulting from this project will be disseminated to the community by organizing conferences, workshops and short courses. We will go the extra mile to ensure that the benefits of our research and educational activities reach underrepresented minorities by (i) making our genomics courses available to minority institutions; (ii) actively collaborating with researchers there; and (iii) recruiting more women and minority students into our laboratory. Our current efforts in these directions will be kept at the same level, if not further intensified. The most significant long term impact of our work would be to replace existing one-size-fits-all cancer therapies with individually customized and better ones derived from engineering approaches.