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Multiscale Modeling of Prion Aggregate Dynamics in Yeast
Mathematical Biology| Speaker: | Mikahl Banwarth-Kuhn, UC Merced |
| Location: | 2112 MSB |
| Start time: | Mon, Mar 7 2022, 2:10PM |
Prion proteins are responsible for a variety of fatal neurodegenerative diseases in mammals but are harmless to Baker's yeast (S. cerevisiae)- making it an ideal system for investigating the protein dynamics associated with prion diseases. Most mathematical frameworks for modeling prion aggregate dynamics either focus on protein dynamics in isolation, absent from a changing cellular environment, or modeling prion aggregate dynamics in a population of cells by considering the "average" behavior. However, such models are unable to reproduce in vivo properties of different yeast prion strains.
In this talk, I will show some results from recent individual-based simulations where we study how the organization of a yeast population depends on the division and growth properties of the colonies. Each individual cell has their own configuration of prion aggregates, and we study how the population level phenotypes are a natural consequence of the interplay between the cell cycle, budding cell division and aggregate dynamics. We quantify how common experimentally observed outcomes depend on population heterogeneity.
Seminar hosted in hybrid format. Email organizer for Zoom link.