Title: Scalable Analysis and Control of Boolean Networks 

　　Speaker:  Dr. Jun Pang  （University of Luxembourg） 

　　Venue: Seminar Room (Room 334), Building 5, Institute of Software, CAS 

　　Time: 10:00am, August 21st, Wednesday 2019 

　　Abstract: Computational modelling plays a prominent role in providing a system-level understanding of processes that take place in a living cell. However, it faces significant challenges when modelling realistic biological systems due to the size of the state-space that needs to be considered. Hence, profound understanding of biological processes asks for the development of new methods that would provide means for formal analysis and reasoning about large systems. In this talk, I will present (1) a scalable method for attractor detection in Boolean networks (BNs), which is the first efficient approach that can deal with large asynchronous BNs with hundreds of nodes; and (2) several efficient reprogramming methods to derive optimal control strategies for driving large BNs from a source attractor to a target attractor, which can have important applications in the study of systemic diseases. 

　　Bio: Dr. Jun Pang has been a senior researcher with the Computer Science and Communications research unit of the University of Luxembourg since 2008. He received his PhD degree in computer science from Free University Amsterdam in 2004, based on research performed at CWI Amsterdam. His main research interests lie in the areas of formal methods, social media mining, security and privacy, and computational systems biology. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and he has the full authorisation to direct research and supervise PhD students from the University of Luxembourg. He has published more than 170 publications in international competitive conferences and prestige journals, and won several best & outstanding paper awards. 

　　He is now serving as an editorial board member of several international journals.