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Genomic Signal Processing: Promise and Obstacles

Edward R. Dougherty, Robert M. Kennedy '26 Chair Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director, Genomic Signal Processing Laboratory, Texas A&M

CSB 209

Abstract

The accumulation of high-throughput genomic data has fueled a desire for the development of systems biology. As recognized by Norbert Wiener more than sixty years ago, the theoretical backbone of systems biology will lie in systems theory. To the extent that genomics plays a role in systems biology, genomic signal processing, including its diversity of engineering aspects, such as stochastic processes, control theory, information theory, and pattern recognition, will be critical. Having experienced more than a decade of activity, the great promise of GSP has clearly been revealed in the potential for molecular-based diagnostics and optimal therapeutic intervention strategies in the context of gene regulatory networks, but obstacles to successful clinical development have also been exposed. This talk will discuss some of the problems that are impeding progress in translational genomics and the revolutionary change in treatment that will ultimately be brought about by a modern medicine grounded in the mathematical theory of dynamical systems.