PhD in Complex Systems for Quantitative Biomedicine

Contacts

Supervisor

Marco Beccuti
Francesca Cordero

Curriculum vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Phd thesis

The implication of a sustainable diet on the Peripheral Nervous System.

 

Rationale

My PhD project is focused on innovative and sustainable dietary strategies and microbiota-based therapies adopting the sustainability of dietary patterns, improving human health, and help in determining any possible role in metabolic disease control. A complex interplay exists between microbiota, peripheral nervous system (PNS) and neurodevelopment. Many effects of gut microorganisms have been described suggesting a direct relationship between microbiota, diet and PNS. Due to their complexity, we are prompt to study interactions present in microbial communities in well-defined experimental settings using proper model organisms and with the help of theoretical and computational modelling.

 

Aims

The project represents a multidisciplinary research approach focused on computational modelling of complexity exploiting multi-omics investigations to study host-microbiota systems. Features system-level can be investigated on the fundamental molecular level. However, analyzing and interpreting the data is still challenging due to emergent properties at intermediate levels, such as cellular individuality or complex relationships of multiple sub-populations. Recent theoretical and computational approaches acknowledge the necessity to incorporate the whole scale of interactions from biochemical reaction networks in a multi-level computational modelling fashion. Based on these analyses, new hypotheses about metabolic states of microbial communities would manifest holistic perspectives on the role of gut-PNS-axis and microbiota crosstalk with PNS, which allow for follow-up mechanistically oriented studies.

Research activities

Interests

 

• Computational Systems Biology;
• Application of modelling and simulation techniques to analyze the behaviour of complex systems;
• Mathematical models for cancer progression and treatment response;
• Mathematical models of metabolism and regulation;
• Modelling complex web of host-microbiome interactions;

 

Systems Biology

 

 I am interested in methodologies that allow quantitative analysis of biological systems. In particular, I am concerned about metabolic networks and the metabolism of microbial communities. Moreover, I am interested in tissue growth through a multi-level modelling approach considering the dynamics occurring among the different subpopulations of cells and regulatory networks describing cellular events in homeostasis and pathology. These approaches are based on mathematical modeling, application of models for systems biology, theory and application of Petri Nets (PNs) graphical modeling formalism, which allows for a general representation of interacting components in a network.

 

Integrating modelling methods in computational biology models

 

I study Systems Biology through the application of mathematical models. I am interested in the definition of novel workflows and modelling frameworks with different purposes:

 

1. Identification of different types of cross-talks between modelling methods and their dependencies on available data;

 

2. Biologically and mathematically grounded decision making the setting for the integration of biological networks (regulatory, signalling, and metabolic networks);

 

3. The study of mathematical aspects and biological applications of these integrated approaches and outline their challenges and general applicability;