Boston University Department of Biology

Faculty Profiles

Current Research

We develop theoretical approaches and computational models for the study of complex biological networks. We are especially interested in the dynamics and evolution of metabolism, whose complex web of small-molecule transformations underlies fundamental aspects of biological organization, from energy transduction to cell-cell communication. In addition to helping understand how biological systems function and evolve, we seek to apply our methods to the design and optimization of engineered networks for bioenergy and biomedicine applications.

Courses Taught

• BE 777 Computational Genomics
• BF 821 Bioinformatics Seminar
• BF 571 Dynamics and Evolution of Biological Networks

Selected Publications

• Wright MA, Kharchenko P, Church GM, Segrè D. (2007). Chromosomal periodicity of evolutionarily conserved gene pairs, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104 (25), 10559-10564.
• Raymond J, Segrè D. (2006). The effect of oxygen on biochemical networks and the evolution of complex life, Science, 311, 1764-1767.
• Segrè D, De Luna A, Church GM, Kishony R. (2005). Modular epistasis in yeast metabolism, Nature Genetics, 37(1), 77-83.
• Segrè D. (2004). The regulatory software of cellular metabolism, Trends in Biotechnology, 22(6), 261-265.
• Segrè D, Vitkup D, Church GM. (2002). Analysis of optimality in natural and perturbed metabolic networks, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99(23), 15112-15117.
• Segrè D, Ben-Eli D, Deamer DW, Lancet D. (2001). The Lipid World, Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 31, 119-145.
• Segrè D, Ben-Eli D, Lancet D. (2000). Compositional genomes: prebiotic information transfer in mutually catalytic non-covalent assemblies, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 97(8), 4112-4117.
• Gilad Y, Segrè D, Skorecki K, Nachmann MW, Lancet D, Sharon D. (2000). Dichotomy of single-nucleotide polymorphism haplotypes in olfactory receptors genes and pseudogenes, Nature Genetics, 26(2), 221-224.