Title: On barrier height and other problems in RNA branching landscapes

Abstract: Understanding the folding of RNA sequences into three-dimensional structures is a fundamental challenge in molecular biology. A key aspect amenable to mathematical analysis is characterizing the branching of an RNA secondary structure, which is a critical molecular characteristic yet too often difficult to predict correctly. Using combinatorial models (i.e. plane trees/noncrossing perfect matchings) and methods (e.g. convex polytopes and their normal fans), we give results that characterize different types of branching landscapes. Not only does this yield insights into RNA structure formation, but it also suggests interesting new directions for further mathematical analysis.

BIO:  Christine Heitsch is the founding director of the Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology, one of four NSF-Simons MathBioSys research centers nationally.  She is professor of mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology with courtesy appointments in Biological Sciences and in Computational Science & Engineering. Following her Ph.D. in mMathematics from the University of California at Berkeley, she was a postdoctoral fellow in theoretical computer science at the University of British Columbia and computational biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Her interdisciplinary research area of discrete mathematical biology sits at the interface of the mathematical, computational and biological sciences and is supported by both NSF and NIH. She is an expert in the combinatorics of RNA folding with research publications in all three disciplines and numerous conference presentations. Recognitions include a career award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and an Alumni Achievement Award from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.