Workshop

Stimulating new ideas in the fields of Genomes, Cells, and Mathematics

Organized by Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), the IAS Extended Workshop on Genomes, Cells, and Mathematics ran in the month of July at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), featuring 18 world-renowned speakers with interdisciplinary research expertise in the fields of mathematics, computer science, cell biology, human proteome and human genetics.

The Extended Workshop is led by Professor Stephen Smale, IAS Senior Fellow and Fields Medalist & Wolf Prize Recipient, in collaboration with Professor Indika Rajapakse, University of Michigan, USA. This year’s workshop rides on the success of the five-day Workshop on Gene Dynamics and Chromosomes organized in 2016, and continues to act as a platform for international experts to exchange views on genome-wide sequencing studies and further our understanding about gene functions, diseases and chromosomal interactions.

In the opening session, IAS Senior Fellow and Fields Medalist & Wolf Prize Recipient Professor Stephen Smale, delivered the lecture titled “Beating in Unison”.

Professor Indika Rajapakse, University of Michigan, presented a lecture titled “Algorithm for Cellular Reprogramming”.

Various speakers exchanged views and continued the discussion after the lecture.

10 sessions of workshop arouse interest across the academic community, attracting nearly 400 participants. Latest trends and development in this research field have been addressed in 18 lectures, presentation topics included:

• Folding of Proteins and RNA Using the Quantum Topology of Moduli Spaces by Professor Jørgen Andersen, Aarhus University, Denmark
• The Emergence of Next Generation Pharmacogenomics Science Enabled by the 4D Nucleome, Patient Data, and Machine Learning Methods by Dr. Brian Athey, University of Michigan, USA
• I. Neural Network Capacity & II. Systems Biology of Circadian Rhythms by Professor Pierre Baldi, University of California, USA
• The Role of Heteroclinic Trajectories in Biological Modeling by Professor Roger Brockett, Harvard University, USA
• GATA3 Regulates Multiple Aspects of Thymocyte Development by Professor James Douglas Engel, University of Michigan Medical School, USA
• Geometric Aspects of the Dynamics and Diagnosis of Cardiac Arrhythmias by Professor Leon Glass, McGill University, Canada
• Model-Free Network Control by Professor Gemunu GUNARATNE, University of Houston, USA
• Network Inference from Multimodal Genomics by Professor Alfred Hero, University of Michigan, USA
• Control of Growth, Form and Scale in Biology by Professor Arthur Lander, University of California, Irvine, USA
• Protein Structures: Space and Dimension by Dr. Shuai Cheng Li, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Genomics of Human Adipose Tissue Macrophages in Obesity by Dr. Lindsey Muir, University of Michigan, USA
• Computational and Bioinformatic Innovations in Proteogenomics: Predicting Functions of Unannotated Proteins and Facilitating Identification of Missing Proteins by Professor Gilbert Omenn, University of Michigan, USA
• Algorithm for Cellular Reprogramming by Professor Indika Rajapakse, University of Michigan, USA
• Genome and Transcriptome Dynamics in Cancer Development by Dr. Thomas Ried, National Cancer Institute, USA
• Beating in Unison by Professor Stephen Smale, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Discovering Multiple Levels of Regulatory Networks by Professor Gary Stormo, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
• Some Applications with Medical Data by Dr. Michael Xuan, UniData Technology, China
• Localization of Heterogeneous Disease Features in Medical Imaging by Professor Yuan Yao, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

Videos and PowerPoint of IAS lectures are available online.