Vortrag von Prof. Frank Doyle

Prof. Frank Doyle
Chemical Engineering,
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Friday 2016-03-04 14:00
IST-Seminar-Room V2.268 - Pfaffenwaldring 9 - Campus Stuttgart-Vaihingen

Abstract

Maintaining robust circadian rhythms has been linked to longevity and metabolic health. Because these rhythms are disturbed by factors such as jet lag, shift work, and high-fat diets, there is interest in developing pharmacological control strategies to modulate circadian function. The design of therapeutic strategies is currently limited by the lack of a clear mechanistic understanding of interactions between posttranslational regulators, as efficient control of clock behavior will likely require several simultaneous modulations. Although small molecules that modulate clock function might offer therapeutic approaches to such diseases, only a few compounds have been identified that selectively target core clock proteins. Using mathematical modeling and systems biology approaches, we provide a mechanistic interpretation for the relationship between candidate regulators, lending insight into circadian regulation and potential pharmacological control. This study provides further insight into the molecular clock machinery responsible for maintaining robust circadian rhythms.

Biographical Information

Frank Doyle is the John A. Paulson Dean of the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where he also is the John A. & Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor. Prior to that he was the Mellichamp Professor at UC Santa Barbara, where he was the Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Director of the UCSB/MIT/Caltech Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, and the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering. He received a B.S.E. degree from Princeton, C.P.G.S. from Cambridge, and Ph.D. from Caltech, all in Chemical Engineering. He has also held faculty appointments at Purdue University and the University of Delaware, and held visiting positions at DuPont, Weyerhaeuser, and Stuttgart University. He has been recognized as a Fellow of multiple professional organizations including: IEEE, IFAC, AIMBE, and the AAAS. He is the President for the IEEE Control Systems Society, and is the Vice President of the International Federation of Automatic Control. In 2005, he was awarded the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award from the AIChE for his innovative work in systems biology, and in 2015 received the Control Engineering Practice Award from the American Automatic Control Council for his development of the artificial pancreas. His research interests are in systems biology, network science, modeling and analysis of circadian rhythms, and drug delivery for diabetes.