Laufer Center Seminar - Jianhua Xing
Jianhua Xing
Professor
Department of Computational and Systems Biology
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pittsburgh
December 12, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Laufer Center Lecture Hall 101
Title: How cells change state: an emerging frontier of chemical physics
Abstract:The scientific revolutions of the 16th and 17th centuries, led by pioneers such as Brahe, Kepler, and Newton, demonstrated how systematic data collection and analysis can give rise to universal theories of dynamicalsystems. Today, systems biology aspires to a similar transformation: to uncover the quantitative and qualitativerules by which cellular components interact to produce robust yet adaptable cellular behaviors. Progress has been made in deciphering network motifs and building whole-cell models in prokaryotes, yet modeling the dynamics of mammalian cells remains a formidable challenge.
Recent advances in single-cell and spatial genomics now generate massive, multimodal datasets that capturecellular heterogeneity with unprecedented resolution. While statistical frameworks have been instrumental in analyzing these data, the inherently dynamical nature of cell state transitions makes them a compelling new frontier for chemical physics. In this talk, I will describe our efforts to derive governing dynamical equations for cellular state changes, integrating insights from chemical and nonequilibrium statistical physics, dynamical systems theory, differential geometry, and modern machine learning. I will highlight data-driven approaches that combine snapshot and time-series single-cell measurements, and present applications to muscle stem cell biology—focusing on how aging perturbs the balance between self-renewal and differentiation, and on strategies aimed at rejuvenating aged cells.
By bridging chemical physics and systems biology, these studies suggest a path toward a predictive theory ofcellular state transitions, with broad implications for regenerative medicine, aging, and disease.
Host: Ivet Bahar
