MAE Seminar – Towards an Integrated Vision of Molecular Environment and Cellular Behavior in Living Systems

Details

Dear Undergraduate and Graduate Students, Faculty, and Staff,
You are invited! UF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s Seminar Series
This is a perfect opportunity to enjoy some coffee, cookies, and captivating talks! These sessions feature amazing guest speakers, from academic trailblazers and industry movers to our very own faculty candidates showing off their expertise and fresh perspectives.
Come for the treats, stay for the engaging discussions, and connect with fellow MAE enthusiasts. Everyone is welcome!

Towards an Integrated Vision of Molecular Environment and Cellular Behavior in Living Systems
February 25, 2025, at 12:50pm, Location: MAE-A 303

Dr. Haleh Alimohamadi
postdoctoral researcher
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Abstract
Cells are the basic building blocks of life. The study of complex cellular behavior has traditionally relied on breaking down phenomena into smaller components to gain understanding. While this reductionist approach has yielded many successes (dating back to Aristotle), it often overlooks the interconnectedness within the system. Artificial intelligence offers transformative potential to reveal hidden interconnections between the multifactorial molecular environment and diverse cellular behaviors in both healthy and diseased states. Our approach involves designing integrative frameworks that combine (1) interpretable artificial intelligence models for predicting features and patterns, (2) theoretical frameworks to understand physical principles, and (3) high-throughput experiments for probing and manipulating cell-molecule interactions. We have successfully applied this approach to derive general rules for how microscopic interactions guide cellular functions, from programmed cell death to reverse cholesterol transport to innate immunity in viral infections. Together, our physical and AI-driven approach can provide insights into the fundamental mechanisms underlying correlated physiological malfunctions, inspiring the development of novel therapeutic strategies that could transform the landscape of modern biomedicine.

Biography
Dr. Haleh Alimohamadi is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), working with Prof. Gerard Wong to tackle complex problems in bioscience by integrating principles from physics, biology, and engineering. Her research aims to uncover the correlations between molecular environments and cellular behavior, bridging molecular-scale machinery at the microscopic level with cellular functions at the mesoscopic level by employing multi-scale physical, experimental, and interpretable AI-driven frameworks. Dr. Alimohamadi earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her research has been recognized with several awards, including the 2024 STAT Wunderkind Award, the 2024 William and Diane Spicer Young Investigator Award, and the 2020 Siebel Scholar Award. She has also received the Distinguished PhD Student Fellowship at UCSD and the NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA.

MAE Faculty Host: Alison Dunn