Abstract:
This talk will first give an overview about what kind of “Biology” Systems Biology is and what the approaches used in Systems Biology are. The importance and necessity of the modern Systems Biology in life science research will also be discussed. Currently in cancer/stem cell research, biologists try to study functions of individual genes in the hope to define the primary targets using knockout, knockdown or over expression. The gene-by-gene search is a time-consuming process. In addition, results derived from single-gene studies might not give the true picture of the functions of the genes as a result of neglecting gene-gene interactions or bypass pathways. The second part of the talk will focus on identification of primary targets using systems biology approaches. We are setting up a platform to integrate experimental genomic and proteomic data with biological and pathway knowledge and to perform possible pathway expansion. Using pathway expansion, guided gene expression manipulation (knockdown or overexpression) can be carried out, while experimental data generated from gene expression manipulation in turn can refine the pathway expansion procedure. An iterative approach between pathway expansion and guided gene knockdown / overexpression experiments can lead to better understand what the primary targets can be, which will considerably accelerate anti-cancer drug development or ligand / cytokine design in regenerative medicine.

Biodata of Speaker:
Dr. Henry Yang is currently a research scientist and team leader of the Systems Biology Group at the Bioinformatics Institute (BII) of Singapore, and an adjunct Assistant Professor at Department of Biochemistry of NUS. Dr. Yang obtained his BSc from Eastern China University, and MSc and PhD from University of Stuttgart, Germany. He was a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Toronto and Northwestern University before joining BII. Dr. Yang’s primary research areas include: micro array data analysis/validation, proteomic data analysis/validation, integration of genomic/proteomic data with metabolic/signalling pathways, primary target finding in cancer/stem cell research using systems biology approaches, haematopoietic primary/stem cell culture, modelling of stem cell renewal and differentiation, modelling and optimization of bio filtration processes.