Maths Meets Biology: Inside the Mission to Model a Living Cell - Part 2

Maths Meets Biology: Inside the Mission to Model a Living Cell - Part 2

From The Random Sample by MACSYS

April 8, 2026 · 36 min · Season 11 · Episode 121

About this episode

This episode explores the ambitious goal of building a predictive model of a living cell through collaboration between mathematicians and biologists at MACSYS.

Scientists are generating more biological data than ever before, and new technologies now allow us to peer inside the cell in ways we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago.  But even the most advanced tools can’t explain how a living cell actually works as a complete system. That’s the challenge at the heart of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Mathematical Analysis of Cellular Systems (MACSYS). The Centre brings mathematicians and computational scientists together with biologists to pursue a bold goal: building a predictive, fully computational model of a living cell. This is the second episode of our two-part series on MACSYS.  Our guests are the leaders of MACSYS - Centre Director Professor Trevor Lithgow and Deputy Director Professor Jennifer Flegg. Together, they explore what a whole‑cell model is, why it matters, and how bridging wet‑lab and dry‑lab science is essential to tackling one of the most ambitious challenges in modern biology. Our host for this episode is Dr Haripriya Sridharan – a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with MACSYS at The University of Melbourne. Episode webpage:&nbsp…

People in this episode

Host: Dr Haripriya Sridharan

Guests: Professor Trevor Lithgow, Professor Jennifer Flegg

Topics covered

  • biological data
  • cell modeling
  • mathematics in biology
  • computational science
  • wet-lab and dry-lab science
  • predictive modeling

Keywords

  • living cell
  • whole-cell model
  • biological systems
  • computational biology
  • ARC
  • cellular systems
  • mathematical analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Australian Research Council, Centre of Excellence for the Mathematical Analysis of Cellular Systems, MACSYS

Places: The University of Melbourne

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