Research Perspective
Our group combines experimental, computational and theory approaches to study the systems dynamics of aging. We work to develop the conceptual foundations and quantitative, predictive models needed to understand and someday control aging.
Current projects touch on questions including: why do genetically identical individuals show a wide distribution of lifespan? What causal pathways mediate the influence of single genes (for example the insulin/IGF receptor) on systemic aging processes? How can we build better tools for measuring and perturbing the dynamics of aging?
Methodologically, we develop and apply approaches involving probabilistic machine learning, “AI”, molecular genetics and functional genomics, aging biomarkers, high-throughput automated imaging, statistical physics, and complex systems modelling.
Research Environment
Our group is a member of the Systems and Synthetic Biology programme at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), giving us excellent colleagues and access to all of the CRG’s world-class core facilities. We engage closely with the Barcelona Collaboratorium for Aging Biology.
The city of Barcelona is a technical and biomedical hub with many research institutes, the IRB, the photonics institute, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, as well as several universities including the UPF , UB, and the UAB and a small but lively biomedical startup ecosystem. Barcelona also has a thriving makers scene, which is great for the members of our group building custom high-throughput imaging apparatus.
The CRG itself occupies the fifth and sixth floors of the PRBB biomedical research building, located on the beach at the center of Barcelona.