Jiarui Wu, PhDDistinguished Adjunct Professor from CAS

Systems Biology is defined as an integrating methodology for analyzing the components and dynamical behavior of biological complex systems as a whole. Based on the theory and approaches of systems biology, my Lab has concentrated on the structure and function of molecular networks for cell fate determination among cell differentiation, cell proliferation and apoptosis, particularly I would like to ask that how cells inter-regulate cell proliferation and differentiation, which is a key to understand the behaviors of stem cells and the development of multi-cellular organisms.

Since the research strategy of systems biology is well fit to analyze the biological complex systems. I am applying this strategy on the mechanism of the complex diseases such as cancer and diabetes. My ongoing project is to identify biomarkers in order to detect the progress stages of the diabetes. As a metabolic disease, diabetes-related proteins tend to enter the circulation system, thus the biomarker discovery in plasma has the potential to play an important role in the early detection and treatment of diabetes. We have developed systematic approaches based on proteomics and bioinformatics to analyze human normal and diabetic serum. In addition, I have planed to analyze the genetic and environmental factors and their interactions during the progressing of the type 2 diabetes with systems-biology approaches.