Predoctoral Trainee

Sarah C. Cunningham Biophysics Doctoral Training Program Faculty Supervisor: Julie Mitchell Email: sccunningham@wisc.edu 262-6844

My research is on systems biology - synthesizing knowledge about complex biochemical pathways by solving large systems of differential equations. Rhodobacter sphaeroides is a photosynthetic bacterium that can grow in a wide variety of conditions and has potential uses in bioremediation. Its photosynthetic pathways are complicated in part by the presence of two forms of the carbon-fixing enzyme known as Rubisco. With a power-law model of the Calvin cycle in R. sphaeroides that I am developing in collaboration with experimental biologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I plan to determine this pathway’s kinetic behavior as a function of the relative concentrations of the two forms of Rubisco and as a function of growth conditions. I am currently using existing mathematical tools to design my model, but my ultimate goal is to participate in the creation of new and better tools for systems biology so that we can come closer to realizing a "virtual cell", an accomplishment that would have profound impacts on such areas as bioengineering and cancer research.

CV

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File last modified: August 13, 2003
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