We’re in an era of big data in biology, mostly genomics, and also big data processing with AI, ML, and more. Using examples from cancer, healthy humans, and embryonic development, we aim to illustrate how physical principles such as in mechanobiology can have a role in explanation, discovery, and possible application.
Dennis Discher
University of Pennsylvania
The Discher lab has sought to discover, elucidate, and even exploit physical contributions to cell, molecular and tissue function. Early discoveries included matrix elasticity effects on stem cell differentiation and mechanosensing by a cell’s nucleus. Current efforts focus on physical determinants of genetic instability and heritable mutations as well as engineering of macrophages to attack solid tumors and initiate immunity. The latter followed molecularly detailed studies of ‘foreign’ versus ‘self’ recognition.
Dozens of trainees from the lab have secured positions in academia and industry around the world. Honors include election to the US National Academy of Medicine, the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Cell Biology. Service has included numerous NIH Study Sections as well as Editorial Boards of Science, Molecular Biology of the Cell, and PNAS Nexus among other journals.