Seminars

Probabilistic Approximations of ODEs Based Bio-pathways Dynamics PDF
P. S. Thiagarajan (Thiagu) – Professor, Department of Computer Science, National University of Singapore

05/25/2012, 2pm, GHC 6501

Abstract

A system of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) is often used to model the dynamics of a bio-chemical network. Such systems are difficult to analyze. To get around this, we construct a discrete probabilistic approximation of the ODE dynamics as a dynamic Bayesian network. Consequently, pathway properties can be analyzed using standard Bayesian inference techniques. We have tested our method on a number of pathways models taken from the biomodels data base. We have also carried out a combined computational and experimental study of the human complement system under inflammation conditions. Our results are very encouraging in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Finally, we have extended the scalability of our approach via a GPU implementation.

Biography

P.S. Thiagarajan is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science, National

University of Singapore and a Senior Faculty Member of the NUS Graduate School of Integrative Science and Engineering (NGS). He received a B.Tech (Electronics) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India (1970) and a PhD degree (Computer Science) from Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA (1973). He has been a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Research Scientist at the Gesselschaft fuer Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD), St. Augustin, Germany, a Lektor (Associate Professor) in the Computer Science department of Aarhus University, Denmark, an Associate Professor at the Institute of Mathematical Science, Chennai, India and a founding professor of the Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai, India. Before coming to NUS his research had been devoted to various aspects of concurrency theory including Petri nets, temporal logics and supervisory control. After moving to NUS, he has focused mainly on real time, hybrid and embedded systems. In recent years, his interest has shifted to computational systems biology. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Sciences and is currently a member of the Governing Council of the Chennai Mathematical Institute.