Alexandria Volkening,“Modeling and topological data analysis of zebrafish-skin patterns”
“Modeling and topological data analysis of zebrafish-skin patterns”
Alexandria Volkening, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
Purdue University
Abstract: Many natural and social phenomena involve individual agents coming together to create group dynamics, whether the agents are drivers in a traffic jam, cells in a tissue, or locusts in a swarm. Here I will focus on the specific example of skin pattern formation in zebrafish. Wild-type zebrafish are named for their dark and light stripes, but mutant zebrafish feature variable skin patterns, including spots and labyrinth curves. All of these patterns form as the fish grow due to the interactions of tens of thousands of pigment cells in the skin. This leads to the question: how do cell interactions change to create mutant patterns? The longterm motivation for my work is to help shed light on this question and better link genes, cell behavior, and visible animal characteristics. Toward this goal, I develop agent-based models to describe cell behavior in growing 2D domains. However, my models are stochastic and have many parameters, and comparing simulated patterns and fish images is often a qualitative process. In this talk, I will overview our agent-based and continuum models and discuss how methods from topological data analysis can be used to quantitatively describe cell-based patterns and compare in vivo and in silico images.
Biography: Alexandria Volkening (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and (by courtesy) the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Prior to joining Purdue, she was an NSF-Simons Fellow in the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology at Northwestern University for two years and a postdoctoral fellow in the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State University for two years. She received her PhD in Applied Mathematics at Brown University in May 2017 with Bjorn Sandstede and her BS in Mathematics from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2011. Her research is in applied math and mathematical biology — she combines predictive modeling and analysis to better understand diverse areas in complex systems, including pattern formation, election dynamics, and crowd movement.
IN-PERSON – KAVLI conference room in CLARK HALL, ROOM 316
-OR-
Join Zoom Meeting:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://wse.zoom.us/j/99304114570
Meeting ID: 993 0411 4570
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,99304114570# US (Washington DC) 13126266799,,99304114570#
+US (Chicago)
Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 993 0411 4570
Find your local number: https://wse.zoom.us/u/acPT2svkU3
Join by SIP
Join by H.323
162.255.37.11 (US West)
162.255.36.11 (US East)
115.114.131.7 (India Mumbai)
115.114.115.7 (India Hyderabad)
213.19.144.110 (Amsterdam Netherlands)
213.244.140.110 (Germany)
103.122.166.55 (Australia Sydney)
103.122.167.55 (Australia Melbourne)
149.137.40.110 (Singapore)
64.211.144.160 (Brazil)
149.137.68.253 (Mexico)
69.174.57.160 (Canada Toronto)
65.39.152.160 (Canada Vancouver)
207.226.132.110 (Japan Tokyo)
149.137.24.110 (Japan Osaka)
Meeting ID: 993 0411 4570