Function and evolution of optical structures in nature. Designing optical structures that simultaneously satisfy multiple and conflicting criteria and satisfy difficult manufacturing constraints is technologically challenging. However, Nature has been doing this for millions of years. This project is a systematic study of optical structures in one of Nature's most diverse range of species: butterflies. The microstructures inside butterfly scales have an amazing diversity of geometries that produ ....Function and evolution of optical structures in nature. Designing optical structures that simultaneously satisfy multiple and conflicting criteria and satisfy difficult manufacturing constraints is technologically challenging. However, Nature has been doing this for millions of years. This project is a systematic study of optical structures in one of Nature's most diverse range of species: butterflies. The microstructures inside butterfly scales have an amazing diversity of geometries that produce structural colour and are amongst the most complex naturally occurring optical structures produced by a single cell.Read moreRead less
Stochastic Modelling of Genetic Regulatory Networks: Subtitle - Genetic Regulation is a Noisy Business. The completion of the human genome marked the culmination of one hundred years of reductionist science in cell biology. Although further bioinformatics analysis will continue, the focus is shifting towards synthesis and understanding how the regulatory genetic components dynamically interact to form functional phenotypes. The key to this is the understanding of the roles of stochasticity in ....Stochastic Modelling of Genetic Regulatory Networks: Subtitle - Genetic Regulation is a Noisy Business. The completion of the human genome marked the culmination of one hundred years of reductionist science in cell biology. Although further bioinformatics analysis will continue, the focus is shifting towards synthesis and understanding how the regulatory genetic components dynamically interact to form functional phenotypes. The key to this is the understanding of the roles of stochasticity in cellular processes. This project will explore these roles and will develop an integrated complex systems modelling, simulation and visualisation framework. This will be used on an exemplar application for lineage commitment in haematopoiesis and for exploring and validating genetic regulatory models in general.Read moreRead less