Cellular and Molecular Biology

Philip Greulich, University of Southampton
Mathematical modelling in cell biology: why and when is it useful?

Mathematical and computational modelling has become an increasingly popular tool in the biological sciences. Yet, often modelling is being employed without gaining much value from it, or in ways where machine learning approaches would be superior. Sadly, wrong use of model fitting can also lead to plainly wrong results. In this talk, I wish to outline some contemporary uses of mathematical modelling in (cell) biology and explain which modelling approaches are generally fruitful and can enrich biological research, in ways that are not achievable by plain experimental approaches.
I will exemplify this on some research projects about clonal dynamics in developing tissue -- mouse mammary gland during pregnancy and microglia in the developing brain -- where experimental data and mathematical modelling were successfully combined to drive the discovery of stem cell fate choice patterns. These examples will show where the pitfalls of mathematical modelling lie and how to circumnavigate them to achieve scientifically sound outcomes that go beyond the reaches of experimental research.
Host: Federico Luzzati | webex link