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amy.brock@utexas.edu
Office Location: BME 4.202F
Amy Brock
Associate Professor
Raymond F. Dawson Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Engineering
Department Research Area
Cell and Tissue Engineering
Research Interests
- Cancer systems biology
- Heterogeneity and cell state plasticity
- Gene regulatory networks
- Chemotherapy drug resistance
- Normal differentiation and differentiation therapy
Research Focus
Amy Brock's lab is interested in understanding cancer as a complex biological system.
To gain novel insights into the disease, we apply a systems approach that does not treat one particular pathway as causation but instead looks upon the ensemble of pathways (the gene regulatory network) as the determinant of cell state. By integrating approaches from dynamic systems, computational sciences, microfabrication and molecular cell biology, we seek to tackle fundamental questions of tumor cell-state alterations and response to treatment.
To effectively treat the “moving target” that is an evolving tumor cell population, we seek to develop models that aid in identifying, monitoring and predicting changes in heterogeneity. We study the dynamics and variation of biological responses to defined perturbations in order to develop rationale and personalized therapies. This problem is examined at multiple spatial scales to uncover the relationship between cell-cell heterogeneity and the population-level response to drug treatment.
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Brock Lab
