Andres Kriete

The focus of my research is on complex systems biology which addresses principles like self-organization, top-down causation, robustness and semantic information processing. We are only at the beginning to understand the full implications of such investigations in areas like development, aging or the mind-body connection.

Complementary to the theoretical work I address energetic perturbations in aging through experimentation. My group has established an aging model for post-mitotic cells through “Energy Restriction in Quiescence” (ERiQ). This cell model demonstrates metabolic stress and transcriptional deregulation seen in many aging tissues, which may underlie the development of age-related diseases involving deregulation of the Akt, mTOR, NF-kappaB and p53 signaling pathways. I have suggested that aging is a robustness tradeoff: cellular responses are tuned to provide survival to acute stressors, but these responses conflict with longevity assurance. To demonstrate, we assembled generic whole cell computational models using feedback loop motifs from control theory in conjunction with rule-based descriptors simulating the progression of aging. Such models can be executed rapidly and repeatedly to study the effect of molecular mechanisms on the aging phenotype.

These long-term research interests reach back to 2007, when I co-organized a first workshop on the Systems Biology of Aging at the Santa Fe Institute, NM, entitled "Complexities of Aging in Biological Systems", initiating a series of subsequent meetings and workshops. Prior activities include multiscale imaging and I am one of the founding members on the “Focus on Microscopy” conference series.

My teaching interests are biological control systems, biostatistics and bioimaging. I am leading the innovation of our graduate programs at our School and have developed new courses and programs in bioinformatics and advanced therapeutics.