Tau-Mu Yi
Developmental & Cell Biology, School of Biological Sciences
Phone: (949) 824-4888
Email: tmy@uci.edu
http://yilab.bio.uci.edu/
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5074
Tau-Mu Yi
Dr. Yi’s laboratory is a systems biology lab interested in the quantitative description of G-protein signaling and cell polarization, and the analysis of the robustness of biological networks. How do cells reliably project and move in the correct direction? It is a challenging task given the inherent external and internal uncertainties. The migration of metastatic tumor cells is a key step in the progression of cancer. In the budding yeast, S. cerevisiae, haploid cells polarize and project toward their mating partner in response to peptide mating pheromones. The well-characterized signal transduction network mediating this behavior involves both heterotrimeric and small G-protein signaling with many features conserved in higher eukaryotes. The goal of this research is to demonstrate how the carefully controlled dynamics of G-protein signaling are essential for robust cell polarization. The approach is to use a combination of quantitative experiments and mathematical modeling.
With respect to cancer, Dr. Yi is interested in the competing demands of progression through the cell-cycle and the specialized processes necessary for cell polarization. Many tumor cells have an undifferentiated unpolarized appearance. Yet, metastatic cells are able to both divide and polarize. Budding yeast offers a good model system for understanding the coordinate regulation of the cell-cycle and cell polarization.
Selected Publications:
Yi, T. M., Kitano, H., and Simon, M. I. (2003). A quantitative characterization of the yeast heterotrimeric G protein cycle. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100(19), 10764-9.
Andrews, B. W., Yi, T. M., and Iglesias, P. A. (2006). Optimal noise filtering in the chemotactic response of Escherichia coli. PLoS Comput Biol 2(11), e154.
Ingalls, B. P., Yi, T.-M., and Iglesias, P. A. (2006). Using control theory to study biology. System Modeling in Cellular Biology, 243-267,385-448.
Yi, T. M., Andrews, B. W., and Iglesias, P. A. (2007). Control analysis of bacterial chemotaxis signaling. Methods Enzymol 422, 123-40.
Yi, T. M., Chen, S. Q., Chou, C. S., and Nie, Q. (2007). Modeling yeast cell polarization induced by pheromone gradients. Journal of Statistical Physics 128(1-2), 193-207. |
