Mathematical Modeling Seminar Series
The Mathematical Modeling Seminar Series showcases speakers developing mathematical models and advancing mathematical approaches to study complex systems.
Join us for our upcoming seminar!
From local asters to global contraction: How filament length and concentration shape microtubule–motor organization
Tuesday, November 17
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Wallace Library (WAL)-4600 or Zoom
Dr. Aravind Roa Karanam
Postdoctoral Research Associate
School of Physics and Astronomy
Rochester Institute of Technology
Abstract: How do simple changes in biological building blocks affect the large-scale structures they form? We pursue this question in a system of microtubules and kinesin motors. Microtubules are stiff protein filaments that help organize the interior of cells, while kinesin motors move along them and generate forces. When combined in vitro, microtubules and motors organize in very different ways—from localized asters to contractile structures spanning the entire system. Using simulations guided by experiments, we examine how two basic properties—the concentration of microtubules and their length—control which of these structures emerges. We find that lower concentrations favor localized asters, while higher concentrations promote asters or system-spanning contraction, with filament length strongly shifting the balance between the two. By connecting simulations with experiments, this work shows how simple microscopic properties can determine whether motor-driven filaments organize locally or collectively across much larger scales.
Bio: Dr. Aravind Rao Karanam is a postdoctoral researcher at the Das Lab at at RIT. He studies the dynamics of biopolymer networks using simulations and theory. He received his Ph.D. from UC San Diego where he studied reaction networks in eukaryotic chemotaxis.
Past Seminar Speakers
How a Binding Protein Makes DNA Condense: Composition Controls Co-Condensation Morphology
Dr. Soumik Mitra
Postdoctoral Research Associate
School of Physics and Astronomy
Rochester Institute of Technology
Constructing a Mathematical Model of Student’s Calculus Knowledge
Dr. Jayson Nissen
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
Montana State University
Full-Waveform Inversion for Medical Ultrasound Imaging
Dr. Rehman Ali
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Imaging Sciences
University of Rochester
Engineering Methods for Cardiovascular Diseases and Beyond
Dr. Zhongwang Duo
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
RIT
Mathematical Modeling of the Interactions between Biofilms and Hydrogel for Corrosion Prediction on Metallic Surfaces
Dr. Olubenga (Olu) Oluwagbemi
Postdoctoral Associate
School of Mathematics and Statistics
RIT
Applications of Topological Data Analysis and Machine Learning Models in Predictive Biology and Drug Discovery
Dr. Rui Wang
Assistant Professor
School of Mathematics and Statistics
RIT
Atmospheric Transfer of Kinetic Energy across Planetary-scale Circulation and Weather
Dr. Pejman Hadi Sichani
Postdoctoral Associate
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Rochester
A QSP PDE Model of ADC Transport and Kinetics in a Growing or Shrinking Tumor
David Ross, Ph.D.
Director of QSP
GSK
Quantitative Systems Pharmacology: Mechanistic Models for Drug Development Decisions Under Uncertainty
Timothy Knab, Ph.D.
Principal Scientist
Metrum Research Group
Exploring the Surface Dynamics of Bimetallic Nanomaterials: From Overlayers to Nanoparticles
Dr. Obioma Uche
Assistant Professor
Chemical Engineering
RIT
Development of a rubella immunity profile to assess the risk of rubella outbreaks
Dr. Kimberly Dautel
Prevention Effectiveness Fellow
Global Immunization Division in the Global Health Center
CDC
Learning and Uncertainty in Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Risk
Dr. Tony Wong
Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics
RIT
Towards Optimization of Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics Using a 3D Model of Cancer-Immune Interaction
Dr. Jordana O'Brien
Postdoctoral Researcher
University at Buffalo
Computational Framework for the Elastography Inverse Problem
Basca Jadamba
Professor
RIT School of Mathematics and Statistics
Materials by Design
Pratik Dholabhai
Associate Professor
RIT School of Physics and Astronomy
Modeling treatment of osteoarthritis with standard therapy and senolytic drugs
Nourridine Siewe
Assistant Professor
RIT School of Mathematics and Statistics
Minimum spectral radius in a given class of graphs
Dr. Vishal Gupta, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
University of Rochester
Microbial Coatings and Predictive Modeling: A Systems Approach to Corrosion Inhibition
Dr. Blessing Emerenini, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics
Rochester Institute of Technology
An ancient evolutionary calculus for attention signaling retained in modern music
Dr. Gregory Babbitt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, T.H. Gosnell School of Life Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
Blood Digital Twins Developed Using Dynamic State Modeling of Single-Cell RNA-seq Data
Dr. Pancy Thein Lwin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Rochester Medical Center
Quantifying immune activity and optimal perturbations in the solid tumor microenvironment
Dr. Anne Talkington, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University at Buffalo
Learning Beyond the Training Distribution: Toward Adaptive and Open-World Learning Systems
Dr. Tyler Hayes, Ph.D.
Research Faculty & Research Scientist
Georgia Institute of Technology
A causal cross-frequency coupling framework for quantifying brain dynamic changes in dementia
Dr. Marco Pinto-Orellana, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Rochester Institute of Technology
Fraud Detection for Random Walks
Dr. Varsha Dani
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
A Systematic Formulation Tightening Approach for Mixed-Binary Linear Programming (MBLP) Problems
Dr. Bing Yan
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering
Rochester Institute of Technology
Bayesian Modeling and Statistical Inference in Machine Learning for Imaging Applications
Dr. Dimah Dera
Endowed Assistant Professor, Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics: Multiscale Modeling of Tissue Remodeling and Damage
Dr. Ashlee N. Ford Versypt
Associate Professor
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
University at Buffalo
Mathematical Models of Obesity-Induced Diabetes and Senescence-Induced Osteoporosis
Dr. Nourridine Siewe
Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics
Rochester Institute of Technology
Large-Scale Climate Dynamics Through the Lens of Network Analysis
Dr. Nishant Malik
Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics
Rochester Institute of Technology
Accelerating Eigensolvers with Momentum
Dr. Sara Pollock
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
University of Florida
Quantum Computing: What Could It Do And How Do We Prepare?
Keegan Kresge
Math Development Program
National Security Agency
Modeling and Parameterization of Respiratory Dynamics in the Preterm Infant
Dr. Laura Ellwein Fix
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
Virginia Commonwealth University
Mathematical Modeling of Earth Surface Processes
Dr. Rachel Glade
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester
Who is the GOAT? Sports Rankings and Random Walks on the Symmetric Group
Dr. Juan Carlos Martínez Mori
Schmidt Science Fellow and a President's Postdoctoral Fellow
H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
A Spatially Explicit Model of Inverse Colony Formation of Cellulolytic Biofilms
Dr. Hermann Eberl
Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Guelph
Brain-Inspired Computing: Beyond Backpropagation of Errors
Dr. Alexander Ororbia
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
A New Class of Odd Lindley Type Distributions and Its Applications
Dr. Nonhle Channon Mdziniso
Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics
RIT
Software for Compositional Modeling
Dr. John C. Baez
Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus & F. Burton Jones Chair
Mathematics Department
University of California, Riverside
Modeling the Effects of Temperature on Sleep Patterns
Dr. Alicia Prieto Langarica
Distinguished Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Youngstown State University
Fixed Point Method for Solving Bilevel Variational Inequalities with Applications
Dr. Oluwatosin Temitope Mewomo
Professor, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Durban, South Africa
Mathematical Modeling of Methane Gas Extraction from Lake Kivu
Dr. Denis Ndanguza
Dean, School of Science
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
University of Rwanda
Patterns of Symmetric Orthogonal Matrices
Dr. Shahla Nasserasr
Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics
RIT
An Eye-Opening View of Computational Optimal Transport: OT in Molecular Vision Studies
Dr. Miranda Lynch
Staff Scientist, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute
Buffalo, NY
A Whirlwind Tour of Data Assimilation from a Machine Learning Perspective with Applications to Sea Surface Height Interpolation
Dr. Juan Emmanuel Johnson
Postdoctoral Researcher
CSIC (Spanish National Research Council)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Statistically Augmented Finite Element Models to Study Knee Biomechanics
Dr. Amy Lerner
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering
Academic Director, Center for Medical Technology & Innovation
University of Rochester
Dr. Erin Leatherman
Associate Professor of Statistics
Kenyon College
ATOMDANCE: Machine Learning Denoising and Resonance Analysis for Functional and Evolutionary Comparisons of Protein Dynamics
Dr. Gregory Babbitt
Associate Professor, Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences
Navigating Uncertainty in Mathematical Models of Climate Impacts
Dr. Vivek Srikrishnan
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering
Cornell University
Qualitative Methods for Small Volume, Inverse Shape Problems
Mr. Govanni Granados
PhD Candidate, Department of Mathematics
Purdue University
Modeling the Dynamics of Centrosome Movement
Dr. Sarah D. Olson
William Steur Professor & Department Head, Department of Mathematical Sciences
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
