Biology seems random and unknowable. But can mathematics help us understand the madness?

You don't need to look outside your window to see the complexity of biological dynamics. 

• A potted plant in the corner of the room may be blooming this month even though it didn't two months ago.

• Your cat might be acting hungry again, even though they weren't an hour ago.

• Your heart is actively beating while you are reading these very words (or at least I hope so...)

Each of these biological processes happens on a regular basis, but the time-scales for each is different. Some are long-term processes and others are short-term. The one thing we know for sure is that each process has a complex series of underlying events/properties controlling it. 

Using mathematics we can try to understand what controls different emerging dynamics.

Who am I?

I am a theoretical and computational scientist with a background in mathematical biology and fluid dynamics. After a BSc in Mathematics and an MSc in Applied Mathematics, I joined the Centre for Fluid Dynamics Across Scales and obtained an MRes and PhD in topics of bioactive fluid dynamics (all at Imperial College London). With a passion for dynamical systems in fluid dynamics I joined the Liverpool Centre for Mathematics in Healthcare at the University of Liverpool (working with Professor Rachel Bearon). During this period I also received the David Crighton Fellowship and worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge. I then worked with Dr Ruben Perez-Carrasco uncovering the dynamics and control of small gene regulatory networks as part of the Imperial College London Centre for Integrative Systems Biology. 

I am now an Addison Wheeler Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University, where I will bring together my expertise in gene regulation, transport processes in fluid dynamics and cilia dynamics to uncover the role of actively beating cilia in the brain. 

So, what is it I actually do?

My research lies on the interface between mathematics and biological dynamical systems with a a focus on bioactive fluid dynamics and systems biology. 

Using a combination of stochastic dynamical systems theory, stability analysis, and biophysical modelling, I develop experimentally informed, non-linear theoretical and computational models to uncover the fundamental principles underpinning biological systems.   

I uncover factors controlling collective dynamics, from a suspension level (e.g. swimming microorganism dynamics), to cellular level (e.g. flagella and cilia dynamics), to gene expression level (e.g. timing dynamics of gene regulatory networks). Comprehensively understanding biological systems requires investigating the interplay of mechanisms across scales as there is intricate feedback between decisions and dynamics on each level, and that requires the development of new  spatial and stochastic dynamical systems.