Lifelike Chemistry Created in Lab Search for Ways to Study Origin of Life
Discovery Fellow David Baum leads a team that has cultivated lifelike chemical reactions while pioneering a new strategy for studying the origin of life.
Tag: complex biological systems
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.
Deep in the Weeds
Xuehua Zhong’s close study of an ordinary plant’s cellular mechanisms could lead to big advances in agriculture and medicine. Zhong is featured in Grow magazine.
Zhen Peng
Theoretical research on the emergence of life-like systems from chemical reaction networks
Tiny Capsules Packed with Gene-Editing Tools Offer Alternative to Viral Delivery of Gene Therapy
An interdisciplinary pair of WID researchers has developed a new nanocapsule delivery method for delivering the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool. The new system could be used for many types of gene therapies.
New Faculty Bring New Possibilities to WID, UW
Claudia Solís-Lemus and Daniel Pimentel-Alarcón are experts in statistics and machine learning, augmenting WID’s data science expertise.
Electronic Records Pin Broad Set of Health Risks on Genetic Premutation
WID graduate student Arezoo Movaghar was a collaborator in a study that employed machine learning to mine decades of electronic health records of nearly 20,000 individuals.
Claudia Solís-Lemus
Assistant Professor
My research involves the development of statistical models to answer biological questions.
Noah Stafford
Exploring multitask learning algorithms for single cell network inference
Uncovering a Connection Between Regulators and Genes During Early Neurodevelopment
WID researchers used a collaborative combination of computational and wet lab experimental techniques to find a connection between a transcription factor and a neurodevelopment gene.
Ryan Herringa
Associate Professor
Neurodevelopmental mechanisms of stress and mental illness in youth
Stuart Fass
Genetic basis for Polyethylene degradation in Galleria mellonella gut flora
UW–Madison Researchers Earn Army Research Office Grant to Study Microbial Communication
WID Director Jo Handelsman and biochemistry professor Ophelia Venturelli are part of a multi-university interdisciplinary team awarded a grant to study information transmission in microbial communities and how biological networks communicate.
Seminar on Astrobiology Aims to Inspire a Look into the Bounds of Life
A new group centered at WID hopes to coordinate the dozens of labs that are addressing some aspect of astrobiology and inspire others to join the work. A public lecture series this spring is part of the effort.
THOR Wrangles Complex Microbiomes into a Model for Improving Them
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.
Tessa Doersch
Developing Stem Cell-Derived Dorsal Horn Interneurons for Regeneration of Somatosensory Circuits
Logan Wright
A proteomics approach to gut microbial interactions that drive epigenetic changes in human metabolism
Noah Nicol
Dorsal horn interneuron generation from ESC and spinal integration of regionalized transplants.