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Jim McPherson

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Jul 10, 2009
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ASU students share research work at international conference

Tags: asu, math

Students share research work at international conference

Arizona State University’s commitment to providing meaningful research opportunities to undergraduate students was on display in June when two West campus students made a trip to the sixth annual Conference on Frontiers in Applied and Computational Mathematics (FACM ’09). Joe Doggett and Anthony Witten weren’t simply attendees at the event held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology; they presented details of the work they are engaged in with faculty members in ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.

Doggett and Witten are pursuing degrees through New College’s Division of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, and their research project involves applying mathematical modeling to gene functions in cells. Working as members of a team with biology and mathematics professors, the students aim to identify predictable patterns in the way genes in yeast cells respond to changes in the concentration of calcium outside the cell. Their goal is to devise mathematical models to predict how genetic changes in a cell will affect the cell’s responses.

“Ultimately this could serve as a model for processes in human cells,” says Pamela Marshall, assistant professor of biology, one of the New College faculty members with whom Doggett and Witten are collaborating. Mathematics professors Erika Camacho and Stephen Wirkus also are involved in the project.

To read the full article: ASU students share research work at international conference