Brandon Ogbunu

SFI News:

SFI Community Lecture: What Is Lyfe? Towards a Biology of Context & Complexity, by Brandon Ogbunu, Yale, SFI, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, at The Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco S. in Santa Fe.

Breakthroughs during the age of genomics have sent shockwaves throughout the biological and biomedical universes. More than any single discovery, the age has been defined by great enthusiasm, funding in abundance, and generations of scientists that operate under the doctrine that — with new technology — we might solve the mysteries of disease, the origin of species, and the origins of life — sequence by sequence, letter by letter. But just as biology is simultaneously more capable than ever before, it is rife with widespread misunderstanding and confusion. SFI External Professor Brandon Ogbunu (Yale) offers a new framing of biology, described as “Lyfe,” embodying a multidimensional appreciation of biological systems that includes the power of history, context, environment, nonlinearity, and narrative.

About C. Brandon Ogbunu:

C. Brandon Ogbunu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His research takes place at the intersection of evolutionary biology, genetics, and epidemiology. He uses experimental evolution, mathematical modeling, and computational biology to better understand the underlying causes and consequences of disease, across scales: from the biophysics of proteins involved in drug resistance to the social determinants driving epidemics at the population level. In doing so, he aims to develop theory that enriches our understanding of the evolutionary and ecological underpinnings of disease, while contributing to practical solutions for clinical medicine and public health. He completed his PhD at Yale University in 2010 and postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and the Broad Institute.

Detail from ‘Penetration’. By Emil James Bisttram, 1938