Research interests
Evolution and ecology of disease
How do infectious diseases and cancers grow and evolve in complex host environments? How does the immune system shape disease evolution and how do diseases shape the immune system?
Related work:
AS Moffett, Youyuan Deng, and Herbert Levine. (2023) Modeling the role of immune cell conversion in the tumor-immune microenvironment. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 85 (93). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-023-01201-z
AS Moffett, PJ Thomas, M Hinczewski, and AW Eckford. (2022) Cheater suppression and stochastic clearance through quorum sensing. PLOS Computational Biology. 18 (7): e1010292. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010292. https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010292
Structural evolution of the genome
How does gene order evolve? What is the role of inversions, translocations, and other genomic structural variants in evolution?
Related work:
Coming soon.
Information, coding, and decisions in evolution and ecology
How can biological agents use information about an uncertain environment to make decisions? What are the effects of these decisions on the population as a whole?
Related work:
AS Moffett and AW Eckford (2022) Minimal informational requirements for fitness. Physical Review E. 105 (1): 014403. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.105.014403
AS Moffett and AW Eckford. (2021) To code, or not to code, at the racetrack: Kelly betting and single-letter codes. arXiv: 2104.14277 [cs.IT]. https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.14277
AS Moffett, N Wallbridge, C Plummer, and AW Eckford. (2020) The Fitness Value of Information with Delayed Phenotype Switching: Optimal Performance with Imperfect Sensing. Physical Review E. 102 (5): 052403. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.102.052403
Biophysics of signal transduction
In graduate school, I worked on a pair of plant receptors, called BRI1 and BAK1. These two membrane proteins together are responsible for the response of plant cells to the growth hormone brassinolide. I used molecular dynamics simulations to understand how BRI1 and BAK1 function on length scales of angstroms to nanometers and timescales of microseconds.
Related work:
AS Moffett and D Shukla. (2020) Structural consequences of multisite phosphorylation in the BAK1 kinase domain. Biophysical Journal. 118 (3): 698-707. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2019.12.026
AS Moffett, KW Bender, SC Huber, and D Shukla. (2017) Allosteric control of a plant receptor kinase through S-glutathionylation. Biophysical Journal. 113 (11): 2354-2363. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2017.08.059
AS Moffett, KW Bender, SC Huber, and D Shukla. (2017) Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the conformational dynamics of Arabidopsis thaliana BRI1 and BAK1 receptor-like kinases. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 292: 12643-12652. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2017.08.059