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Some Geometric Problems in Biology

GGAM Colloquium

Speaker: Joel Hass, Department of Mathematics, UC Davis
Location: 1147 MSB
Start time: Fri, Mar 15 2013, 4:10PM

The study of biology give rise to natural geometrical problems. This is partly because many biological properties are determined or reflected by the shape of objects, ranging from proteins to bones. I'll describe how geometric issues play a central role in some of these problems, and how we are using mathematical methods, including conformal and hyperbolic geometry to study them. Some problems I will discuss are:

1. The function of the brain and Alzheimer's disease.

2. The evolutionary tree of old world monkees

3. Classifying proteins

4. Protein docking



This is part of a project that includes Nina Amenta and Patrice Koehl from the Computer Science Department, and Owen Carmichael and Alex Tsui from the Department of Neurosciences.

Reception to follow the talk.