Dr. Farnoush Farahpour

Faculty of Biology
Faculty of Medicine
University of Duisburg-Essen
Universitätsstr. 2
45141 Essen

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• ZMB Research Program
  Oncology

Research Overview

Overcoming Complexity of Biological Systems: from Data Analysis to Mathematical Modeling
Biological systems are complex. This complexity arises from the collective behavior of many interacting units and can occur at all levels of the biological world, from molecular and cellular levels to the individual and population levels. These systems may show simultaneously several aspects of complexity, for example by being dynamic, non-linear, self-organized, and multi-layered. To understand complex biological systems, it is not sufficient to identify and characterize the individual units in the system but a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between the units and seeing them as a community is necessary. This approach has proven its capabilities in providing mechanistic insights in the study of complex phenomena in all fields of biology from theoretical models of evolution to the transnational studies of complex diseases such as cancer or diabetes.

In our research, we focus on the development of computational methods, including data analysis tools and statistical and mathematical models, for understanding the dynamics and behavior of complex biological systems. We have active research projects on developing reliable tools to infer interactions of biological units, for example in microbial communities or T cell receptor repertoires. We also use different mathematical modeling approaches, including stochastic individual-based models, to study mechanisms of diversity generation and maintenance in biological communities, and multi-level models, for systems biology problems, like radio therapy-induced immune responses.