Mathematical Biology Seminar Chris Miles, University of California, Irvine, Tueday, January 28, 2025 2:00pm in LCB 215 From chromosomes to collectives: modeling mitosis with data-driven dynamics Abstract: In mitosis, copied DNA must be physically arranged for the cell to divide properly, with errors associated with disease. At odds with the individually stochastic components driving the process, cells perform this task with astonishing speed and accuracy. I will present some projects combining mechanistic modeling with modern inference approaches to understand this emergent organization. First, I'll present an approach leveraging experimental trajectory data to learn the rules of mitotic interactions. Second, I'll discuss how mechanical modeling gives insight into how cancer cells with aberrant spindle geometries can still achieve proper division. Finally, I'll share new frameworks for analyzing collective motion and clustering heterogeneous time series, in pursuit of creating tools to identify complex behaviors from modern datasets of biological systems.