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Andres Kriete, PhD

Andres Kriete, PhD

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,
Teaching Professor

Office: Bossone 718-B
Phone: 215.895.6163
Email: ak3652@drexel.edu

Bio

The focus of my research is on the systems biology of aging, taking an integrative view of a biological process that disturbs a broad range of cellular and physiological functions in a complex and global fashion. We explore concepts from engineering (complex systems, robustness, control theory) to decipher the mechanisms of aging at the intersection of experimental, computational, and theoretical biology. We have established an aging model for post-mitotic cells through “Energy Restriction in Quiescence” (ERiQ). This experimental platform resembles metabolic stress responses and transcriptional regulation seen in many aging tissues, which may underlie the development of age-related diseases involving deregulation of the Akt, mTOR, NF-kappaB and p53 signaling pathways. 

We have suggested that aging is a robustness tradeoff of complex evolutionary systems. Cellular responses are tuned to provide survival to acute stressors, but these responses conflict with longevity assurance.  To demonstrate, we assembled generic whole cell models using feedback loop motifs from control theory in conjunction with rule-based descriptors simulating the progression of aging. Such models can be executed rapidly and repeatedly to study the effect of molecular mechanisms on the aging phenotype.

In 2007, I co-organized a first workshop on the Systems Biology of Aging at the Santa Fe Institute, NM, entitled "Complexities of Aging in Biological Systems." Subsequent 2008 and 2009 meetings promoting systems approaches in aging included seminars held at ASU and NIH-NIA, under the title of "Systems Biology in Human Aging," which was continued as SBHA-2010 in Philadelphia, PA.

Current students I am supervising include John Malamon (Genome Systems Analysis in Alzheimer’s Disease), Ian Kennedy (Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease), Meghan Knecht (Predictive Biosimulation) and Shayne Watson (Pharmacokinetics Modeling).

My teaching interests are in Biosimulation, Principles of Systems Analysis, Biostatistics and Bioimaging.

Education

  • Habilitation (Venia legendi), Medical Informatics, University of Giessen, Medical School, 1997
    • Projects: Functional multiscale biosimulation, biomedical informatics
  • PhD, Physics, University of Bremen, Germany, 1985
    • Dissertation: Analysis and classification of multidimensional microscopic data
  • Diploma, Physics, University of Bremen, Germany, 1981
    • Fields: Optics, image analysis, modeling signal processing in the retina

Research Interests

Cellular and computational bioengineering, systems biology of aging, control theory, bioimaging.

Publications

Alfego D, Rodeck U, Kriete A: Global mapping of transcription factor motifs in human aging. PLOSOne. 2018. (compares experimental platforms including ERiQ with data from aging tissues)

Alfego D, Kriete A: Simulation of Cellular Energy Restriction in Quiescence (ERiQ) - A Theoretical Model for Aging. Biology (Basel), 2017 (computational ERiQ model)

Yalamanchili N, Kriete A, Alfego A, Danowski KM, Kari C and Rodeck U. Distinct Cell Stress Responses Induced by ATP Restriction in Quiescent Human Fibroblasts. Frontier Genetics, 04 October 2016 (experimental ERiQ platform)

Kriete A. Robustness and Aging - A Systems Level Perspective. BioSystems, April 2013.
Also see Accepted Manuscript

Kriete A, Eils R. Computational Systems Biology, 2005, and 2nd edition, 2013 Elsevier - Academic Press.

Kriete A, Lechner M, Clearfield D, Bohman D. Computational Systems Biology of Aging. Wiley Interdisciplinary Syst. Biol. Med. Reviews 2011 Jul 3(4): 414-428.

Shrinivasan V, Kriete A, Sacan A, Jazwinski M. Comparing the yeast retrograde response and NF-kB stress responses. Aging Cell 2010 Dec 9(6): 933-941.

Kriete A, Bosl WJ, Booker G. Rule-based cell systems model of aging using feedback loop motifs mediated by stress responses. PLoS Comput Biol. 2010 Jun 17;6(6):e1000820.

Kriete A, Mayo KL. Atypical mechanisms of NF-kB activation and aging. Experimental Gerontology, 2009 Apr 44(4):250-255.