A living system, like any complex entity, is more than the sum of its parts. It can be as simple as a virus or as complex as an ecosystem. Researchers at WID aspire to gain an understanding of how such systems function, as well as how they adapt to and shape their environments over different time scales.
An interdisciplinary group of engineers, computer scientists, physicists, and evolutionary biologists take a multi-pronged approach to understanding living systems. We develop and combine experimental and computational methods to study diverse problems, ranging from interactions between organisms (e.g., between hosts and pathogens, and within diverse microbial communities) and interaction networks within organisms (e.g., regulatory and metabolic interactions). A common theme to complex biological systems research at WID is to view these systems through the lens of evolution.
A growing understanding of microbial communities and their influence on human health or crop productivity has led to the dream of changing these communities to produce benefits. New research at WID addresses this head-on.
Developing Stem Cell-Derived Dorsal Horn Interneurons for Regeneration of Somatosensory Circuits
A proteomics approach to gut microbial interactions that drive epigenetic changes in human metabolism
Dorsal horn interneuron generation from ESC and spinal integration of regionalized transplants.
Looking for other possibilities for the origins of life that isn't a spontaneous cell formation
WID seeks to add to its roster of excellent faculty with two new hires in emerging cutting-edge fields.
WID’s new hubs—Data Science, Multi-Omics, and Illuminating Discovery—represent a new path forward for collaborative research projects and fields.
Developing computational tools to learn the principles of genome organization
WID’s John Yin and colleagues have described initial steps toward achieving chemistries that encode information in a variety of conditions that might mimic the environment of prehistoric Earth.
Development of motor neurons derived from human stem cells via sectioning, staining, and microscopy
Application of computational models to predict cancer prognostics from proteomics and secretomics
Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, WID’s Seyfullah Kotil and Kalin Vetsigian uncover an assembly mechanism that can lead to the spontaneous formation of microbial communities.
Lab Manager
Genomic DNA sequencing and viral production. Facilitate various administrative functions.
From On Wisconsin Magazine: UW-Madison students are joining the hunt for new antibiotics in their introductory biology coursework and becoming part of the Tiny Earth network, based at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.
An international team of researchers including WID scientists has discovered new mechanisms to regulate the activity of a gene essential in metabolism, with implications for pathologies related to alterations in glucose levels in the body, such as diabetes or metastasis in some types of cancer.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: At a recent training event, teachers from Milwaukee Public Schools were joined by a teacher from New York Public Schools, a middle school teacher from Oak Creek, and even a researcher planning to bring the program back to his home university in India.
With Wisconsin’s short growing seasons, reducing a plant’s life cycle and completing the season earlier “could be very important for many crops.”
Ten highly innovative projects have been chosen to receive University of Wisconsin–Madison Data Science Initiative funding, including two led by Wisconsin Institute for Discovery investigators.
Professor
Co-lead of Data Science Hub (datascience.wisc.edu). Research on systems genetics.
