MPU Noon Seminar Series

Speaker: Yu (Brandon) Xia, Ph.D.
Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

Title:
"Multiscale modeling of biomolecular networks"

Abstract:
Systems biology aims to build a working model of the cell by first mapping the network of
interactions among proteins and other biomolecules in the cell. While highly successful, this
network-based view of the cell often treats biomolecules and their interactions as nodes and
edges with little atomic details. Such details are important because atomic-level changes in
the molecular circuitry, such as those induced by spontaneous mutations, can lead to large
differences in cell behavior, as often happens in disease and evolution. Here, I will present
recent work on constructing genome-scale structural models of nodes and edges within
protein-protein interaction networks, in order to probe design principles of proteins and protein networks at multiple scales. I will show that this multiscale structural systems biology approach provides useful insights into the impact of point mutations and other pathogenic perturbations on proteins and protein networks.

Biographical Summary:
Yu (Brandon) Xia is a Professor of Bioengineering at McGill University, where he holds a Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Computational and Systems Biology. He graduated from Peking
University with B.S. in Chemistry (major) and Computer Science (minor). He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University specializing in computational structural biology with Michael Levitt, and carried out postdoctoral research in bioinformatics with Mark Gerstein at Yale University. Prior to joining McGill University in 2013, he was an Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics and Chemistry at Boston University. His research uses computation and data science to probe design principles of proteins and protein networks in health and disease.