Open Lecture — Recovering Biological Networks, and the Ubiquitous Inverse of the Variance-Covariance Matrix

Cellular processes are governed by interactions among genes or their protein-products. Molecular biology has unraveled many of these interactions.  With recent technological advances, extensive measurements can be made for large numbers of genes and other cellular entities. This raises the question whether from these measurements one can deduce relationships among the genes.  This is called the network reverse-engineering problem.  A simple mathematical object, the inverse of the variance-covariance matrix, is at the heart of a whole class of methods for attacking this problem.  The talk will present biological questions and explain how inverse variance-covariance matrix come into play. Novel applications include epigenetic factors and their interplay.

Light refreshments will be served before the lecture at 3:30 p.m.