Systematic: How Systems Biology is Transforming Modern Medicine

You can’t understand how the brain works by studying only a single neuron. Similarly, cells, animals, ecosystems, and countless other biological systems all exhibit behaviors that can only be understood by knowing how all of the parts of the system work together in a network. This talk will cover what systems biology is, explain why it’s exciting, and sketch a few biological problems that are unified by this systems idea. Come hear about plagues of rats that happen only every 48 years, how gerbils in Kazakhstan get bubonic plague, how bacteria manage to find food even when we try to mess them up, and more!

Today’s speaker, James Valcourt, is pursuing a Ph.D. in systems biology at Harvard University. As a former researcher at D. E. Shaw Research in New York City, he used supercomputer simulations to study pharmaceutical drugs. He is a recipient of the quarter-million-dollar Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship, and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with an A.B. in molecular biology, receiving the Pyne Prize. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his first book, SYSTEMATIC, comes out today.

About NY Salon:
In a tweet, “TED, with friends. And booze.” Biweekly series of casual, interactive, and intellectually stimulating discussions led by moderator and speaker(s). Each week’s topic will be different and meant to be thought provoking and engaging. Our hope is that such an organization can help make the city a smaller place, one discussion, one cup of tea and one debate at a time.