top of page

Announcing: Awarded Internal Project Grants

Writer's picture: NITMBNITMB

Updated: 4 days ago

The NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology is proud to announce the Institute has awarded funding to support ten new internal research projects. These projects are developing mathematical frameworks that illuminate emergent capabilities of biological systems. Explore a selection of the newly-supported research projects below. Additional details are available on the Supported Research page.


A new mathematical framework for classification in cell state dynamics

Principal Investigators: Yogesh Goyal (Assistant Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology, Northwestern University) and Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathani (Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago).


Abstract: Our proposal emerges from a crucial challenge in cell biology: how do transcriptionally identical cells make different fate decisions when exposed to therapeutic drugs? We have observed that while cancer cells may appear homogeneous, they can develop remarkably diverse resistance trajectories when treated with drugs. To address this fundamental question, we propose developing new mathematical tools that unite concepts from statistical mechanics of deep neural networks, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and information theory to understand how biological networks function as classifiers. Our work extends our recent findings showing how biochemical networks' classification capacity can be systematically tuned through factors like input promiscuity. We anticipate that this ambitious undertaking will establish a mathematically consistent framework for defining cell states and their transitions, elucidate the minimal requirements for biological networks to classify perturbations, and create predictive tools for cellular responses to therapeutic interventions.

Form and Function of Drifting Olfactory Representations in the Piriform Cortex

Developing a mathematics for evolved systems

Invasions in a Four-Species Cyclically Competing Ecological Community

Adaptation and Evolvability through Reinforcement Learning

Modeling RNA sequence-structure-function relationships with multiscale higher-order graph neural networks

Uncovering the link between chromatin organization and global transcriptional regulation

Characterizing excitability and its applications to immunity

Applications of the free probability to the diversity of response and variability in neuronal networks

Multimodal Data Analysis for uncovering host-microbiome responses to environmental stress


175 views
National Science Foundation logo
Simons Foundation Logo

Funded by US National Science Foundation DMS-2235451 and Simons Foundation MP-TMPS-00005320

Location icon

Mailing Address

875 N Michigan Ave

Suite 3500

Chicago, IL, 60611

Building Entrance

Near 186 E Chestnut St.

Chicago, IL, 60611 

Northwestern University logo
The University of Chicago logo
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

©2025 NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology

bottom of page