In this talk I will discuss how computational algebraic geometry and topology can be useful for studying questions arising in systems biology. In particular I will focus on the problem of comparing models and data through the lens of computational algebraic geometry and statistics. I will provide concrete examples of biological signalling systems that are better understood with the developed methods.

Dr Heather Harrington is a Royal Society University Research Fellow in Applied Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the problem of reconciling models and data by extracting information about the structure of models and the shape of data. To develop these methods, Dr Harrington integrates techniques from a variety of disciplines such as computational algebraic geometry and topology, statistics, optimisation, network theory, linear algebra, and dynamical systems.