Rice–PSL Global Seed Fund Recipients

Developing an International Collaboration in the Fields of Theoretical Biophysics

The objective of this grant is to develop an international collaboration on the fields of Theoretical Biophysics between the Center of Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) located in Rice University and the Paris Biophysical community. This will be framed as a collaboration between Institut Curie (PSL) and CTBP to open an office of the CTBP in Rice Global Paris Center to pursue exchanges and research. CTBP and the Physics of Cancer and Cells unit (UMR168) in Institut Curie are two of the main global players in the field of Theoretical Biophysics, and PSL has a very active and extended community in the field. The range of interests of this future venture cover the following topics: (i) Genome structure and function (ii) Tissue mechanics and multicellular organization (iii) Dynamics of cancer: initiation, growth, progression; ageing dynamics (iv) Learning, memory and inference, from biology to data science, information theory. Currently, a collaboration between the Onuchic and Vittori groups produces a systematic representation, via machine learning and simulations, of the evolution of genome structure throughout the cell cycle in baker’s yeast.

José Onuchic

Co-Director, Center for Theoretical Biological Physics |

Harry C. & Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics |

Professor, Chemistry and BioSciences

Rice University

Vittore Scolaria

CNRS Researcher, Genome Functions in Space and Time

Institut Curie-PSL