The award provides partial travel/subsistence support for participants of the "2018 q-bio Summer School at Rice University,' to be held June 11-24, 2018 at Rice University, immediately preceding the international q-bio Conference. "Q-Bio" stands for Quantitative Biology and reflects the Summer School's goal to combine biological and mathematical methods to understanding the evolution and function of biological cells in health and disease. Individual cells respond to stimuli such as viruses in different ("noisy") ways, but their interaction is a coordinated immune response which can be predicted using mathematics. Another example is the effect of chemotherapy on leukemias, which may leave small numbers of residual malignant cells and lead to recurrence of disease. Again, it is possible to predict, using mathematics and computer simulations, how and when this may happen. The q-bio School encourages early career scientists to pursue quantitative systems biology and provides a forum for the exchange of new results and ideas. The unique formula of the School includes active participation in research projects, some of which lead to scientific progress and publications. The Summer School originated in 2007 on the campus of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and past summer schools have been very successful, with over 85% positive reviews and 76% former participants actively engaged in quantitative biology research. The current School at Rice University campus takes advantage of the Houston Health Center, the Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center. The School will be followed by the Annual q-bio Conference at Rice University. Over 11 years the q-bio Summer School has developed an extensive network of 4-500 alumni and actively promotes participant diversity.
Two educational tracks are envisioned in 2018: Cancer Dynamics and Stochastic Cell Regulation. The program will last two weeks and include: ten 1-hour research seminars; ten 1.5-hour general lectures; 30 hours of in-depth breakout discussions, chalk talks and computer lab demonstrations; 8 career-focused panel discussions; 20 student oral presentations; two poster sessions; 20+ hours of mentored project work; and formal and informal networking opportunities. The Stochastic Cell Regulation track explores stochasticity and cell-to-cell variability in the measurement and modeling of biochemical systems, concentrating on how small numbers of important molecules (i.e. genes, RNA, and protein) affect dynamics of living cells. The Cancer Dynamics track addresses biological and mathematical issues related to modeling of evolution of cancer. Lectures cover topics spanning many time- and length-scales, from fundamental issues of cell proliferation and mutation dynamics to molecular events affecting specific pathways in cells and population genetics effects. This section of the summer school includes instructor-suggested group projects, in which students formulate and explore stochastic models of cancer evolution, applying these tools to model experimental and clinical data. More information can be found at the q-bio School's website
http://q-bio.org/wp/qbss/2018schedule/
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
