Senior Research Associate
Computational Biology Service Unit /
Cornell Life Sciences Core Laboratories Center /
Cornell University
crm17 [at] cornell [dot] edu / 607.255.5894 (phone) / 607.254.8888 (fax)
626 Rhodes Hall / Cornell University / Ithaca, NY 14853
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My research interests percolate on the landscape where complex systems meet computation, touching on problems from systems biology, statistical physics, dynamical systems, and computer science. In the past, I've worked on problems such as critical phenomena and pattern formation in disordered systems, slip complexity on earthquake faults, defect dynamics and multiscale modeling in materials, and the design and development of software systems for scientific computing. More recently, I've been working on problems in molecular and cell biology (specifically, the functioning of regulatory and signaling networks in cells) and to related questions concerning the organization and evolution of complex, adaptive, information processing systems.
Some important questions in the field of systems biology seek to address how cells process information from their environment through gene regulation and signal transduction networks, and how those networks remain robust and evolvable in the face of both external environmental changes and internal genomic modifications. Living cells are functionally polymorphic, with modules being mixed and matched in different contexts, and functional compensation exposing itself in unexpected ways when a component or subsystem is unable to function properly. I am interested in the organization and function of cellular information processing networks, and my longstanding interest in the design of software systems suggests analogies between engineered and evolved information processing networks, centered around how complex functionality can be assembled through the dynamic composition of modular, evolvable components. Somewhat more practically, I am engaged in collaborations focused on unraveling gene regulatory and signaling networks in pathogenic bacteria, and on developing tools and techniques for quantitative, predictive modeling of cellular function.