Welcome to Cellular mathematics, a newsletter where we will explore how math and physics enhances our understanding of life at the cellular and molecular level.

Subscribe to stay up to date with new posts, which will be a mix of short and long-form essays diving into various advancements and research endeavors in mathematical biology.

About me

My name is Sabina J Haque. I graduated from Middlebury College in 2018, where I double majored in mathematics and biochemistry. Now, I am a 4th year PhD candidate at Harvard University working in Dr. Jeremy Gunawardena’s research group. My research blends applied mathematics and statistical physics to develop a stronger understanding of cellular information processing during gene regulation. More on this soon…

Why cellular mathematics?

When I was in high school, I watched an online video called “Beauty of Mathematics.” The video juxtaposed everyday events – such as rolling a die or milk swirling into coffee – with the equations describing them. I began to appreciate how math could interpret natural phenomena into elegant equations. Around the same time, I took a biology summer course and learned how processes like gene expression influence every detail of our daily existence. In that class, I had an idea that I still haven't been able to let go of – what would the “Beauty of Mathematics” video look like for a cellular process?

As I’ve trained simultaneously in mathematics and biochemistry, the overlap between the two fields became increasingly apparent. Chemical chirality and molecular symmetries comprise groups. Elementary topology and knot theory can describe the hierarchical structure of the eukaryotic genome. Stochastic processes and nonlinear dynamics capture the inherent randomness in many molecular processes. Developing an affinity for math, pure and applied, and using that skillset to make interdisciplinary connections allows one to appreciate how a strong quantitative foundation can address unanswered questions surrounding the massive complexity in biological systems.

Aside from using mathematics to model and predict biological phenomena, I’ve often wondered what it means to utilize math in this way. Are biological processes merely described by math, or do they emerge as a consequence of underlying mathematical structures? After all, we’ve been able to derive these structures and laws in physics, and cells are physical system. The emergence of life from the collective behavior of non-living components remains one of the biggest questions in science. While biology manifests in myriad and infinitely complicated ways, is it possible that a unifying mathematical theory can explain it all?

What to expect

Each post will contain a deep-dive into a new area of cellular mathematics. The source content will vary — I might focus on a book or a research article or a review about a particular subarea. The focus of each post is to drill into the nuts and bolts of the underling mathematics, no matter how complex, and discussing the precise way these models have been able to demonstrate functional behavior of a cellular system. I currently plan to release a new post once every two weeks.

I look forward to embarking on this journey, and I hope you, whoever you may be, will join me!

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How does math enhance our understanding of life at the molecular level?

People

Explaining the cell with math. Applied mathematician and theoretical biophysicist. Explaining the cell with pure and applied math. Newly minted Systems Biology PhD from the Gunawardena lab Harvard. Incoming Van Loo Applied Math Postdoc Fellow.