Talk title: Systems approaches to measure, model, predict and improve heterogenous responses to cancer therapies

Speaker: Mohammad Fallahi-Sichani, PhD
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
University of Virginia

Abstract: 

The systems biology research in the Fallahi-Sichani lab is focused primarily on understanding the mechanisms through which human cancer cells respond heterogeneously to environmental and therapeutic perturbations. These responses can take the form of changes in gene expression, metabolic state, or cell fate decisions such as differentiation, cell division, growth arrest, or induction of cell death in response to cancer drugs. Interestingly, these responses vary among cells in different states, even those that are genetically identical. Understanding the mechanisms that underpin heterogeneous cell fate decisions and cellular plasticity has been a key challenge for quantitative biology and precision medicine. To address these challenges, we deploy cutting-edge, high-throughput, highly multiplexed technologies to generate hypothesis-driven datasets of single-cell behaviors, apply modern multivariate computational tools to analyze such high-dimensional datasets, and create quantitative models to describe tumor cell behaviors at single-cell, molecular and network levels. The iterative use of experimental and modeling methods enables us to discover novel mechanisms of cellular signaling, plasticity and heterogeneity in cancer cell state and drug response, validate these mechanisms, and utilize them to guide improvement in cancer therapies.

Speaker Bio:

Mohammad Fallahi-Sichani is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Basic Science Lead of the Melanoma Translational Research Team at the University of Virginia (UVA) Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received a B.Sc. in Biotechnology from the University of Tehran and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He completed his postdoctoral training as a Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF) fellow in Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. At UVA, he leads a systems biology research program focused on cell state plasticity and tumor heterogeneity, that is funded by the NCI, NIGMS, Department of Defense, as well as multiple cancer research foundations. His research has been recognized by multiple awards, such as the NIH/NCI Pathway to Independence Award, BMES Cell and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Rising Star Award, DoD Career Development Award, UVA Shannon Center Mid-Career Fellowship, and V Foundation for Cancer Research V Scholar Award.

Host:
Hanieh Mazloom-Farsibaf, PhD