Bioengineer Qutub recognized for big-data computer modeling

By Shawn Hutchins

Rice bioengineer Amina Qutub is one of 30 U.S. and 60 international early career engineers invited to participate in the 2014 Indo-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (IAFOE).

Amina Qutub

The IAFOE symposium, which will be held May 19-21 at the Infosys Training Center in Mysore, India, is organized by the National Academy of Engineering and the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum.

Qutub, an assistant professor of bioengineering, was chosen to attend the IAFOE symposium for her research in systems biology and new work on interactive computer models that characterize protein signaling networks and cell phenotypes in patients.

In recent years Qutub’s Systems Biology Laboratory, located at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, began developing a clinical research tool called BioWheel in collaboration with leukemia physician Steven Kornblau of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Their big-data models integrate collections of complex biological data sets, such as expression levels of hundreds of proteins, with patient correlates like genetics, gender, age and disease progression, to optimize therapies and find new drug targets.

On similar fronts, Qutub’s lab is integrating high-dimensional clinical data with image-analysis of neural cells to help understand neurodegeneration and develop new regenerative treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.

Themes to be discussed at the 2014 IAFOE symposium include cutting-edge engineering developments in the context of big data, biomaterials, water resource management in the face of climate change and green approaches to communications.

–Shawn Hutchins is a science writer and Web specialist for the Department of Bioengineering.