The mission of our group is to develop broadly distributed, integrated models for biomedical, biofuel & ecological systems. To make these systems-biology models useful & accurate, we develop technologies suitable for comprehensive yet cost-effective systems measures & synthesis of designed biosystems. In particular, we focus on replication of four systems -- mammalian stem cells, cell-cycle metabolism, microbial ecosystems (e.g. ocean circadian cycles & biofilms), & "in vitro" mini-genomes. Each of these has advantages for developing "systems analysis" tools & each represent existing clinical or commercial practice ripe for improvements (e.g. respectively, stem cell transplants, metabolic engineering, environmental bioremediation, & molecular biology "kits").
Although in some ways broad & interdisciplinary, in other ways the integration of systems-analyses & "-omics" technologies represents a specialized discipline. It requires a focused & dynamic tool-set & attitude. Examples of technologies include proteomic mass spectrometry, microarrays (for whole -genome RNA, mutant growth rates, & DNA-protein interactions), polymerase colony ("polony") amplification (for RNA splicing, haplotyping, sequencing), & chemical synthesis of genes & genomes. These are integrated with each other & with relevant systems models. These models include metabolic optimization, clusters of transcription factor motifs, & 3D (& with time 4D) models of genome folding & replication.