Confirmed Speakers & Participants

Application Information

ICERM welcomes applications from faculty, postdocs, graduate students, industry scientists, and other researchers who wish to participate. Some funding may be available for travel and lodging. Graduate students who apply must have their advisor submit a statement of support in order to be considered.

Via the application process, rank the top 3 preferred research projects you would like to join and participate at this workshop.

Application Deadline: October 9, 2024

Your Visit to ICERM

ICERM Facilities

ICERM is located on the 10th & 11th floors of 121 South Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island. ICERM's business hours are 8:30am - 5:00pm during this event. See our facilities page for more info about ICERM and Brown's available facilities.

Traveling to ICERM

ICERM is located at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Providence's T.F. Green Airport (15 minutes south) and Boston's Logan Airport (1 hour north) are the closest airports. Providence is also on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. In-depth directions and transportation information are available on our travel page.

Lodging

ICERM's special rate will soon be made available via this page for our preferred hotel, the Hampton Inn & Suites Providence Downtown. Contact programstaff@icerm.brown.edu before booking anything.

The only way ICERM participants should book a room is through the hotel reservation links located on this page or through links emailed to them from an ICERM email address (first_last@icerm.brown.edu). ICERM never works with any conference booking vendors and never collects credit card information.

Childcare/Schools

Those traveling with family who are interested in information about childcare and/or schools should contact housing@icerm.brown.edu.

Technology Resources

Wireless internet access ("Brown-Guest") and wireless printing is available for all ICERM visitors. Eduroam is available for members of participating institutions. Thin clients in all offices and common areas provide open access to a web browser, SSH terminal, and printing capability. See our Technology Resources page for setup instructions and to learn about all available technology.

Accessibility

To request special services, accommodations, or assistance for this event, please contact accessibility@icerm.brown.edu as far in advance of the event as possible. Thank you.

Discrimination and Harassment Policy

ICERM is committed to creating a safe, professional, and welcoming environment that benefits from the diversity and experiences of all its participants. Brown University's "Code of Conduct", "Discrimination and Workplace Harassment Policy", "Sexual and Gender-based Misconduct Policy", and "Title IX Policy" apply to all ICERM participants and staff. Participants with concerns or requests for assistance on a discrimination or harassment issue should contact the ICERM Director or Assistant Director Jenna Sousa; they are the responsible employees at ICERM under this policy.

Fundamental Research

ICERM research programs aim to promote Fundamental Research and mathematical sciences education. If you are engaged in sensitive or proprietary work, please be aware that ICERM programs often have participants from countries and entities subject to United States export control restrictions. Any discoveries of economically significant intellectual property supported by ICERM funding should be disclosed.

Exploring Providence

Providence's world-renowned culinary scene provides ample options for lunch and dinner. Neighborhoods near campus, including College Hill Historic District, have many local attractions. Check out the map on our Explore Providence page to see what's near ICERM.

Visa Information

Contact visa@icerm.brown.edu for assistance.

Eligible to be reimbursed

B-1 or Visa Waiver Business (WB)

Ineligible to be reimbursed

B-2 or Visa Waiver Tourist (WT)

Already in the US?

F-1 and J-1 not sponsored by ICERM: need to obtain a letter approving reimbursement from the International Office of your home institution PRIOR to travel.

H-1B holders do not need letter of approval.

All other visas: alert ICERM staff immediately about your situation.

ICERM does not reimburse visa fees. This chart is to inform visitors whether the visa they enter the US on allows them to receive reimbursement for the items outlined in their invitation letter.

Financial Support

This section is for general purposes only and does not indicate that all attendees receive funding. Please refer to your personalized invitation to review your offer.

ORCID iD

As this program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), ICERM is required to collect your ORCID iD if you are receiving funding to attend this program. Be sure to add your ORCID iD to your Cube profile as soon as possible to avoid delaying your reimbursement.

Acceptable Costs

• 1 roundtrip between your home institute and ICERM
• Flights on U.S. or E.U. airlines – economy class to either Providence airport (PVD) or Boston airport (BOS)
• Ground Transportation to and from airports and ICERM.

Unacceptable Costs

• Flights on non-U.S. or non-E.U. airlines
• Flights on U.K. airlines
• Seats in economy plus, business class, or first class
• Change ticket fees of any kind
• Multi-use bus passes
• Meals or incidentals

Advance Approval Required

• Personal car travel to ICERM from outside New England
• Multiple-destination plane ticket; does not include layovers to reach ICERM
• Arriving or departing from ICERM more than a day before or day after the program
• Multiple trips to ICERM
• Rental car to/from ICERM
• Flights on a Swiss, Japanese, or Australian airlines
• Arriving or departing from airport other than PVD/BOS or home institution's local airport
• 2 one-way plane tickets to create a roundtrip (often purchased from Expedia, Orbitz, etc.)

Travel Maximum Contributions

• New England: $350
• Other contiguous US: $850
• Asia & Oceania: $2,000
• All other locations: $1,500
• Note these rates were updated in Spring 2023 and superseded any prior invitation rates. Any invitations without travel support will still not receive travel support.

Reimbursement Requests

Request Reimbursement with Cube

Refer to the back of your ID badge for more information. Checklists are available at the front desk and in the Reimbursement section of Cube.

Reimbursement Tips

• Scanned original receipts are required for all expenses
• Airfare receipt must show full itinerary and payment
• ICERM does not offer per diem or meal reimbursement
• Allowable mileage is reimbursed at prevailing IRS Business Rate and trip documented via pdf of Google Maps result
• Keep all documentation until you receive your reimbursement!

Reimbursement Timing

6 - 8 weeks after all documentation is sent to ICERM. All reimbursement requests are reviewed by numerous central offices at Brown who may request additional documentation.

Reimbursement Deadline

Submissions must be received within 30 days of ICERM departure to avoid applicable taxes. Submissions after thirty days will incur applicable taxes. No submissions are accepted more than six months after the program end.

Projects

Project #1 - Cancer Evolutionary Dynamics

Jasmine Foo (University of Minnesota), Kamrine Poels (Pfizer)

(Mathematical modeling of mRNA m6A dynamics)Epitranscriptomics refers to modifications to RNA molecules, particularly mRNA, that influence gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent internal modification in eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA) and regulates critical RNA activities including stability and translation. In cancer, it has become increasingly evident that m6A modifications significantly influence tumorigenesis, progression and metastasis by altering the expression of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. However, the exact mechanisms of m6A dynamic regulation are not fully understood. In this project we will develop mathematical models aimed at describing/exploring m6A dynamics and elucidating its role in cancer progression, using mechanistic biological principles as well as published data. Understanding the dynamics and role of m6A modifications in cancer will ultimately open new avenues for developing therapeutic targets and biomarkers for prognosis prediction.

Project #2 - Dynamics of oscillatory networks responsible for cell-fate determination and disease development

Genevieve Stein-O'Brien (Johns Hopkins University), Elana Fertig (Johns Hopkins University)

Cell fate determination is influenced by a variety of genetic and epigenetic factors, metabolism, and protein reactions at both the species and individual cell level. Development within a particular species and cell type has been shown to be determined by oscillations observed in the expression of keydevelopmental genes, with time scale of these processes also taking place at species-specific and cell-autonomous level. Individual genetic and epigenetic changes, circadian rhythmicity has been shown to persist at individual cell level in-vitro, with coupling of circadian clock and cell cycle resulting in timed mitosis, rhythmic DNA replication, and circadian and cell-cycle controlled transcription. The transcription-translation clock-controlled feedback loop drives expression of clock genes with a period of ~24hrs. These clock-controlled genes have been shown to comprise from 10-50% of a tissue’s transcriptome, varying in a tissue and cell-type dependent manner. Increasing evidence suggests the cell cycle, metabolic signaling, and circadian oscillators behave as a system of coupled oscillators. This synchronization challenges regulatory network inference, as correlated transcriptional changes can confound causal gene regulation with effect on cell cycle and circadian rhythm. This project’s goal is to determine how changes in dynamics of regulatory components, along regulatory networks are responsible for the regulation of the circadian, cell cycle, and metabolic oscillators; and to elucidate how these changes can lead to both cell fate decisions and disease development, e.g. cancer development. Determining components of the regulatory networks responsible for dysregulating synchronization of cells would be necessary. We will accomplish this by leveraging single cell-RNA Seq and spatial transcriptomic data available from a variety of developmental and cancer datasets to identify molecular components responsible for cell-fate determination with the goal of identifying how particular gene expression dynamics responsible for cell-fate determination are driven by cell cycle, circadian, metabolic oscillators. We will help identify these datasets, learn to process them to infer cyclic processes, and derive regulatory networks. We hypothesize that disease states will be characterized by a lack of synchronization and loss of direct regulation amongst cell-cycle, circadian, and metabolic oscillators and will be associated with a context-dependent regulatory network.

Project #3 - Epidemic Modeling Heterogeneity & Risk.

Christa Brelsford (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Sara Del Valle (Los Alamos National Lab)

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of understanding the factors driving disproportionate health outcomes and integrating heterogeneity into epidemiological models. However, many existing models use homogeneous mixing assumptions, which fail to capture disparities within different populations. This project aims to address this gap by employing various quantitative risk assessment frameworks to analyze spatial heterogeneity in disease risk, considering sociodemographic and environmental factors. We will evaluate how different model parameters, disease characteristics, initial conditions, and data sources influence assessed risk. Our goal is to characterize risk variation both spatially and across social and demographic dimensions. The project will leverage techniques from epidemic modeling, spatial statistics, data science, and machine learning.

Project #4 - Biofilms

Rayanne Luke (George Mason University), Sarah Olson (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Controlling Bacterial Biofilm Growth
Bacterial biofilms are composed of bacterial cells along with matrix (self-produced polysaccharides, proteins, and DNA that are gel-like). Biofilms are dominant phenotype of bacteria and can be found in natural, industrial and medical settings. In the case of bacterial infections, we would want to prevent biofilm growth and spreading. In this project, we will utilize experimental data to develop agent-based models of bacterial biofilms. Conditions we could examine include the relationship between biofilm metabolism and mechanics, and/or the relationship between biofilm spreading and mechanics. We plan to assess different parameter estimation techniques, along with utilizing machine learning to identify potential rules that govern the agents in the system.

Project #5 - Agent-based modeling of lung fibrotic disease for testing and identifying new drug targets

Shayn Peirce-Cottler (University of Virginia), Ashlee Ford Versypt (University at Buffalo)

Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a computational method for analyzing and predicting the emergent, population-level outcomes of interacting, autonomous individuals in a complex system. ABM has been widely used to inform planning and decision making across a variety of industries and sectors of society, including finance, architecture and urban planning, national security and defense, sales and marketing, social and political sciences, education, public health, medicine, and biomedical research. In this project, participants will learn how to develop and code an ABM to simulate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of human disease and to identify new drug targets for treating disease. The goals of this project are to: 1) simulate human fibrotic lung disease, 2) use ABM simulations to investigate the contributions of fibroblast cellular heterogeneity to pathogenesis, and 3) use the ABM to identify novel molecular targets for drugs that can slow or reverse disease progression. Participants will learn how to simulate different initial conditions in order to explore the use of ABMs as a framework for constructing a patient-specific “digital twin”. They will also use their models to test real and hypothetical drugs for personalized medicine. Participants are not required to have any prior experience with ABM. During this project, they will learn how to program in a user-friendly, freely available ABM software called NetLogo.

Project #6 - Evolution and Genome Analysis

Emilia Huerta-Sanchez (Brown University), Julia Palacios (Stanford University)

Recent methodological advances have made it possible to infer tree-like genealogies that represent the genetic relationships within a sample of genomes from a population. Due to recombination, different regions of the genome may have distinct ancestral lineages, resulting in multiple genealogies. To better understand evolutionary processes, there is a need for methods that leverage these genealogies to infer key parameters. In this workshop, we will focus on developing computational methods that utilize genealogies to infer demographic events, such as introgression, and to detect positive selection. This will involve creating new approaches for comparing trees across the genome and developing statistical tools with the power to accurately infer the evolutionary processes of interest.