CFP: APS 2016 - Focus session on Critical transitions in biological systems

[Fengfeng Zhou]

APS 2016 - Focus session on Critical transitions in biological systems

March 14-18, 2016, Baltimore, MD, USA

http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/

http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/scientific/focus.cfm

Co-sponsored by: DBIO/GSNP

Division of Biological Physics/Statistical & Nonlinear Physics

When submitting, please select 3.1.18 or 4.1.23 for “sorting category”

Many biological processes (chronic disease onset, development and differentiation,

self-assembly, etc.) are reminiscent of phase transitions in a dynamic system:

Quantitative changes accumulate largely unnoticed until a critical threshold is reached,

which causes abrupt qualitative changes of the system. Understanding such nonlinear

behaviors is critical to dissect the multiple genetic/environmental factors that together

shape the genetic and physiological landscape underlying basic biological functions,

and to identify the key driving molecules.

In this focus session, we will bring together biophysicists, statistical physicists,

scientists studying nonlinear dynamic systems, as well as systems biologists. We will

discuss the current quantitative approaches to study the critical phase transitions in

several model biological systems; and how such studies have been applied to areas

including but not limited to: genetics of complex disease, driving network identification,

and molecular marker prediction.

We invite abstracts from quantitative scientists who have worked on critical transitions

in biological systems, as well as biologists who have a model system of critical

transition, or who think they have observed a critical-transition-like phenomenon in their

biological systems, and are interested to work with quantitative scientists to investigate

further.

Two invited speakers, listed below, have been confirmed. In addition, ~10 abstracts

will be selected for contributed talks.

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Luonan Chen, PhD

Key Laboratory of Systems Biology,

Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology,

Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences,

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Email: lnc...@sibs.ac.cn

Title: "Detecting early-warning signals of critical transitions for complex systems"

Xujing Wang, PhD

Systems Biology Center

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI),

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Email: xujin...@nih.gov

Title: “Investigation of functional consequence of geometric phase transition in cellular

networks using the pancreatic islets as a model system”