Mathematical Medicine and Biology Seminar | Sidhartha Goyal, Dimensionality in Living Systems

Location

MC 6460

Speaker

Professor Sidhartha Goyal from the Department of Physics, University of Toronto and CIFAR Fellow 

Title

Dimensionality in Living Systems

Abstract

Modern biological experiments measure thousands of variables at once, making living systems appear overwhelmingly complex. Surprisingly, recent work shows that many biological processes can be described using only a few effective degrees of freedom. In this talk, I will use gene expression data from cell fate transitions in developing and regenerating tissues to explain what we mean by the effective dimensionality of a biological process and how it can be identified from data. Finally, I will make a case that this dimensionality may depend on the biological context and even the question of interest.