By Rolando Garcia
Natural Science and Mathematics Communications

A team of scientists including University of Houston researchers is combining biology and mathematics to better understand cell behavior by assembling synthetic gene circuits to control gene expression, an effort that may yield breakthroughs in diseases like cancer and diabetes.

The group – headed by Gábor Balázsi – assistant professor of systems biology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and an adjunct professor of physics at UH – crafted a gene circuit that permits precise tuning of a gene’s expression in yeast cells, allowing for more accurate analysis of a gene’s role in normal and abnormal cellular function.

The findings were published in March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By studying and controlling synthetic gene circuits, researchers hope to learn more about how more complex biological gene networks behave.

The insights gleaned from research into gene circuits could eventually help scientists engineer cells that regulate insulin production, fight cancer and infectious pathogens or act as biosensors to detect concentrations of toxins, Balázsi said

Understanding and predicting how the gene circuits operate requires accurate mathematical models, and that is where UH mathematician Krešimir Josić, associate professor, comes in. Josić, who co-authored the paper with Balázsi and other researchers at M.D. Anderson, said that collaborations between biologists and mathematicians are on the rise.

Both Balázsi and Josić are part of the Center for the Mathematical Biosciences, which is comprised of about three dozen researchers from UH, Rice University and the Texas Medical Center. The center fosters cooperative research betweenbiologists, physicists and mathematicians at UH and biomedical researchers at North America’s largest medical center.

The newly formed center, together with a new bachelor’s degree in math bioscience that soon will be offered by UH, underscores how math and biology are merging to form a new field, Josić said.

“My collaboration with (Balázsi) is the product of increased discussions across disciplines that have resulted from the formation of the Center,” he said.