Understanding the immune response to pathogens:
Arup K. Chakraborty,
Chemical Engineering,
Chemistry, and Biological Engineering
MIT, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, & Harvard
4:30 PM, Room 4-349
Interdisciplinarity in the Age
of Networks
Jennifer Chayes, Microsoft Research,
Abstract: Everywhere we turn these days, we find that networks
have become increasing appropriate descriptions of relevant
interactions. In the high tech world, we see the Internet, the
World Wide Web, mobile phone networks, and a variety of online
social networks. In economics, we are increasingly experiencing
both the positive and negative effects of a global networked
economy. In epidemiology, we find disease spreading over our ever
growing social networks, complicated by mutation of the disease
agents. In problems of world health, distribution of limited
resources, such as water resources, quickly becomes a problem of
finding the optimal network for resource allocation. In
biomedical research, we are beginning to understand the structure
of gene regulatory networks, with the prospect of using this
understanding to manage the many diseases caused by gene
mis-regulation.
In this talk, I look quite generally at some of the models we are
using to describe these networks, processes we are studying on
the networks, algorithms we have devised for the networks, and
finally, methods we are developing to indirectly infer network
structure from measured data. In particular, I will discuss
models and techniques which cut across many disciplinary
boundaries.
4:30 PM, Room 4-349