Program Contacts
Phone: 7744553694
Email: kristen.yanick@umassmed.edu
Robert C. Brewster, PhD
Associate Professor, Department in Systems Biology and Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems
Dissecting and Understanding the Implications of Resource Sharing to Cellular Decision Making
My group studies transcriptional regulation in bacteria through a combination of theory, using molecularly detailed statistical mechanics models to produce quantitative predictions, and the tools of modern synthetic biology to design and test these predictions using a wide range of microscopy techniques. In particular, I am interested in understanding how the interconnected environment of the cell, where most regulatory players (transcription factor proteins, regulatory RNAs, etc.) act on dozens or even hundreds of different genes, can influence the special and temporal patterns of gene expression
Hyun Youk, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Systems Biology and Program in Molecular Medicine
Transitions Between Being Alive and Being Truly or Seemingly Dead
We are interested in identifying and studying the ways in which a cell or an organism transitions between being alive and being either truly or seemingly dead (e.g., dormancy). We hope to find common principles that underlie these transitions. We are particularly interested in principles that allow life to be restarted after it has nearly or completely ceased, as in the case of dormant spores in yeast and diapaused mouse embryos. Our studies can deepen our understanding of quiescent and senescent cells which, in turn, are important for understanding human diseases such as cancer and how and why organisms age. We use quantitative experiments that range from single-cell-level measurements on microscopes to transcriptome analyses.