Systems biology collaborative program

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Who’s who

Partnerships

What is systems biology? Hiroaki Kitano – founder of SBI

Hiroaki Kitano – founder of SBI

Research Systems biology to improve IVF success

Systems biology to improve IVF success

For students Successful collaboration held jointly with Stem Cells Australia

Successful collaboration held jointly with Stem Cells Australia

News and events Enhancing systems biology program Events News

Enhancing systems biology program

Events

News

ICSB Conference 2014

Collaboration is key in systems biology – bringing together diverse people, from different fields of research, to get a big picture understanding of complex systems.

SBI Australia’s new program of collaboration and training combines diverse expertise and resources in the emerging field of systems biology, exposing scientists to the big picture of systems in human organs, fertility, agriculture and environmental management.

With the support of the Victorian Government, SBI Australia is establishing a systems biology program, comprising regular seminars and workshops that encourage a culture of networking across disciplines and enhance the profile of systems biology in Victoria.

The program includes:

quarterly collaboratives, where three researchers – one basic, one clinical and one translational – will speak about their research, followed by a question and answer session

visits by international speakers, to showcase international advances in systems biology

training workshops around specific technical skills for systems biology research.

Systems Metabolomics – A Research Collaborative

When: 11:00am on Tuesday, 3 March 2015 (Networking and light lunch from 12:30pm) Where: Level 5 Seminar Room at Melbourne Brain Centre, Kenneth Myer Building, 30 Royal Parade, Parkville, University of Melbourne RSVP : Please register here by Thursday, 26 February 2015

Metabolomics is an emerging field in the suite of ‘omic’ approaches for systems biology that combines high-throughput analytical technologies for the detection and quantification of metabolites in biological matrices with the application of superior bioinformatic tools for data mining and analysis. Metabolomics is still developing, though, as vendors adapt separation and detection instruments to meet its challenges and the research community interprets, models and integrates the complex data they are acquiring.

Presentations will made by the following speakers:

Dr Camilla Hill and Dr Adrian Lutz work as post-doctoral researcher at A/Prof. Ute Roessner’s laboratory at the School of BioSciences and Metabolomics Australia in Melbourne. Adrian will be presenting on the topic of Metabolomics Australia: High-throughput Services for Researchers and Industry Partners. He will provide an overview of the routinely used techniques for metabolite profiling, in particular GC-MS and LC-MS. Camilla will be presenting several case studies to show how metabolomics data can be integrated with genomic data for system-level studies in cereal crops.

Prof Falk Schreiber is a Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. He will discuss multiscale metabolic models and how such models and metabolomics data can be integrated and visualised. He will give a brief overview of typical modelling approaches for simulating and analysing metabolic processes, and present a solution for multiscale modelling of metabolism in plants. In the second part he will introduce the Vanted software, a framework for visual analytics of biological networks and related experimental or simulated data.

Dr Darren Creek is group leader of the Metabolomics and Antimicrobial Systems Pharmacology laboratory at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS). In his research he uses advanced metabolomics and systems pharmacology methods to investigate drug action in microbial pathogens. He will talk about a new method that couples stable isotope labelling with untargeted LC-MS based metabolomics to allow direct observation of metabolic flux through both expected, and unanticipated, pathways in the model protozoan T. brucei .

This workshop is part of a broader program of initiatives being run by SBI Australia, called Enhancing Systems Biology In Victoria and is part-funded by the Victorian State Government .

News from the Heart – A Cardiac Research Collaborative

When : (3:15pm) for a 3:30pm start on Thursday, 20 November 2014 (Networking from 5:00pm )

Where : Building 74, Level 1, Core 104, Clayton Campus, Monash University

RSVP: Please register here by Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Complex signalling and transcriptional networks control heart development, function and failure, and researchers are just beginning to map out these networks. Through the continuing development of novel computational and experimental models, researchers are analysing the cardiovascular system in exciting new ways and exploring how new models can be applied to understanding the complex area of cardiac research.

Join us at the next Victorian Systems Biology Collaborative to hear three leading Australian researchers present their latest work. Participate in a discussion forum and networking session to explore how these different perspectives are leading the future of cardiac research.

Dr Milena Bastos Furtado from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University is an independent investigator in the Rosenthal lab, where she leads research on fibrosis and heart failure. She is an expert in developmental biology, focusing on cardiac transcriptional networks. She will talk about her research interests in the epigenetic memory of cardiac fibroblasts and the role of the transcriptional network she has uncovered in heart development, homeostasis and disease.

Dr Vijay Rajagopal is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Since 2014 he is establishing a new research program in ‘cellular geometrics’ to measure the 3D spatial organization of cells and their local environment. Vijay will speak about his work in developing realistic 3D models to examine cardiac cell structure-function relationships and cancer cell mechanics and motility.

Dr Mirana Ramialison is a Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University. She focuses on applying systems biology approaches to reconstruct the cardiac gene regulatory network and unravel the complex interactions leading to proper heart formation and underpinning disease states.

This workshop is part of the Victorian Systems Biology Collaboratives, which are designed to build the collective knowledge, networking and understanding of systems biology in Victoria and to help generate a collaborative culture and opportunities across the research and industry communities. It is part of a broader program of initiatives being run by SBI Australia, called Enhancing Systems Biology In Victoria and is part-funded by the Victorian State Government .

When: 8:30am arrival for a 9:00am start on Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Where: Conference Room Building 203 (Ian Wark Laboratory) CSIRO Bayview Avenue Clayton VIC 3168

RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/nm6fcjy by Friday, 13 June 2014

Click here to access a map of the CSIRO Clayton precinct.

Technological advances are producing new insights into bone repair and remodelling. By intersecting expertise in biology, chemistry and bioengineering, the resulting diverse data can be integrated across different scales to generate a more comprehensive understanding of bone systems in health and disease. Exciting opportunities to translate this knowledge into innovative therapeutic applications are anticipated.

Join us at the next Victorian Systems Biology Collaborative to hear four leading Australian researchers present their latest work. Participate in a discussion forum and networking session following the presentations to explore how these different perspectives will contribute to the way bone fractures and disease will be treated in the future.

The symposium will feature the following speakers:

Professor Roger Daly – Head, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University

Roger’s research focus is tyrosine kinase signalling mechanisms and their deregulation in cancer. His recent work is using cutting edge, MS-based phosphoproteomic and kinomic profiling techniques to characterise, at a global level, changes in signalling networks in cancer cells, with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers.

Dr Melissa Davis – Senior Research Fellow in Cancer Systems Biology at the University of Melbourne

Melissa specialises in the integration of genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data with knowledge-based network models to identify sub-networks and pathways disrupted in cancer. She has recently been awarded a four year NBCF Fellowship to study the systems biology of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in breast cancer.

Dr Tianhai Tian – Associate Professor / ARC Future Fellow, School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University

Tian’s research interests concentrate on mathematical modelling and simulation of biological systems. He uses different types mathematical methods to study a wide range of complex networks in biological sciences such as genetic regulatory networks, simulation of chemical reaction systems, pathways, cancer robustness and cancer therapy, cell signalling and telomere length regulation in ageing research.

This event is being co-hosted by the CSIRO.

Epidemiology modelling collaborative

When: 11:30am arrival for a 12:00pm start on Friday, 27 June 2014

Where: AMREP Seminar Room Ground Floor Alfred Hospital 55 Commercial Road Melbourne

Click here for information about the Alfred Medical Research and Education Centre (AMREP).

RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/ls4mrby by Monday, 23 June 2014

Starting with a basic description of disease data, epidemiological modelling seeks to build increasingly complex models to accurately predict disease progress including infection, spread and population impact. Epidemiological modelling informs a range of social imperatives including health, economics, government policy and national security. Our speakers will explore these ideas from the initial data and model development through to the social impacts:

A/Prof Jodie McVernon – Academic, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Vaccines against pertussis (whooping cough) were introduced in most developing countries in the 1950s, resulting in a dramatic reduction in disease and death, particularly among vulnerable young infants. Despite this initial success, however, resurgence of pertussis has been documented in recent developed countries in the face of high vaccine coverage. This phenomenon has highlighted critical uncertainties in the underlying host-pathogen interactions that govern pertussis infection and spread. We have developed models of pertussis to shed insight on key drivers of observed epidemiologic trends, informing national and international immunisation policy.

Dr Joel Miller – Senior Lecturer, School of Mathematical Sciences

The structure of contacts in a population forms a fabric along which infectious diseases (and ideas) can spread. Understanding how the contact network influences the spread of an infectious disease gives us tools to predict the future spread of an epidemic as well as to target our interventions most effectively. My research focuses on developing the mathematical tools needed to incorporate partnership duration into the spread of infectious disease. These tools help us to answer questions about the role that overlapping partnerships have on the transmission of diseases such as HIV.

Dr James McCaw – Academic, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Seasonal influenza outbreaks cause substantial morbidity and mortality each year, along with potentially catastrophic pandemic events. The neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) class of antiviral agents has been shown to limit the spread and clinical severity of influenza, leading most developed countries to develop drug stockpiles for pandemic response. Emergence of NAI resistant influenza strains could, however, dramatically undermine this strategy. Working collaboratively with basic virologists and immunologists, we have developed methods to evaluate the relative fitness of drug resistant viruses, consider the likelihood of their emergence, and develop population-level NAI stockpiling and implementation strategies to reduce this risk.

This event is being co-hosted by AMREP.

The Systems Biology Institute

EMBL Australia

The Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute

Monash University

2014 Conference