The next Computational Cell Biology workshop will be held in person at our Center in Farmington in June or July 2025.

Watch the previous online workshop lectures at https://www.youtube.com/@compcellbiol8898

CCAM at UConn Health

Is developing new approaches for in vivo measurements and manipulation of molecular events within the cell, and new computational approaches for organizing such data into quantitative models.

CCAM integrates new microscope technologies for making quantitative in vivo live cell measurements with new physical formulations and computational tools that will produce spatially realistic quantitative models of intracellular dynamics.

To investigate the relationships between experimental and computational worlds, we use a tripartite approach described as:

  • Measure - develop new tools for measuring spatially resolved dynamic behavior of molecules in cells.
  • Model - develop new methods for spatial modeling of biological systems.
  • Manipulate - develop new techniques for manipulating the spatial distribution of molecules in living cells.

These three analytical approaches, (measurement, modeling and manipulation) are integrated and interdependent, e.g., models generate predictions that can be validated with new measurements, as well as experimental approaches that manipulate intracellular signals and structures. These approaches allow us to tackle fundamental questions of how the spatial organization of molecules in cell is established and how it is utilized to control cell function. CCAM hosts a confluence of expertise in physics, chemistry, experimental cell biology and software engineering immersed in a biomedical research setting that values interdisciplinary collaborations, and our Training Program in Systems Biology provides a new model for interdisciplinary training in cell biology. CCAM is the home of the Virtual Cell, a computational environment for cell biological modeling developed as a NIH-designated National Resource, and also hosts a variety of projects in biophotonics and live cell microscope imaging methods as well as a state-of-the-art user microscopy facility for nonlinear, confocal, and widefield microscopy.

Inclusivity Statement

CCAM is committed to fostering an inclusive and tolerant research environment. We support students and faculty of all races, religions, ethnicities, differing physical abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

UConn  maintains a number of resources to promote inclusivity and to report complaints:

Office of Institutional Equity
Ombuds Office
Dean of Students Office Bias Reporting
Office for Diversity and Inclusion
School of Medicine Office of Multicultural and Community Affairs

Collage of various images, cells, people, building

Upcoming Events

  1. May 2 CAM Presentation: Dr. Paola Vera-Licona 12:00pm
  2. May 9 CAM Research in Progress: Rotation Students 12:00pm
  3. May 16 CAM Presentation: Edwin Appiah 12:00pm
  4. May 23 CAM Presentation: Arnab Mutsuddy 12:00pm
  5. May 30 CAM Presentation: Dr. Michael Blinov 12:00pm
All Events »

News

  • The 26th Annual CompCellBio workshop
    February 28, 2025. The 26th Computational Cell Biology workshop took place ONLINE for the 5 days, February 24-28th. Cell biologists and biophysicists leaned how to use VCell (https://vcell.org/), COPASI (https://copasi.org/ ) and SpringSalad (https://vcell.org/ssalad) software to develop spatial and non-spatial models using deterministic, stochastic, agent- and rule-based approaches. The course included introductions to VCell, COPASI, and […]
  • Dr. Blinov’s publication in NPJ SysBio
    February 4, 2025. Dr. Blinov’s publication in NPJ Systems Biology and Applications details how to use AI tools to investigate systems biology resources related to mathematical modeling: Kannan, M., Bridgewater, G., Zhang, M., & Blinov, M. L. (2025). Leveraging public AI tools to explore systems biology resources in mathematical modeling. npj Systems Biology and Applications, 11(1), 15: […]
  • Dr. Kshitiz publication in Advanced Materials Technologies
    January 22, 2025. A collaboration led by Kazunori Hoshino lab in UConn Storrs, Kshitiz lab at CCAM tested how human endometrial cells change their mechanics in anticipation of decidualization. A recent paper published in Advanced Materials Technologies describes how cells become stiffer, but amazingly, when cells from placenta interact with them, they reverse this stiffening.
  • Dr. Yu’s PNAS paper using microscopy to study cystic fibrosis
    January 21, 2025. Dr. Ji Yu is part of the team that recently published PNAS paper on how CFTR impacts monocyte adhesion. Mutations in CFTR contribute to inflammatory pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis. The study utilized super-resolution microscopy to show that the mutations caused defects in integrin clustering but not their activations.
  • Dr. Agmon published with the Allen Institute in microPublication
    January 20, 2025. Dr. Eran Agmon, in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Cell Science, published a manuscript in the journal microPublication on “Comparing simulations of actin filament compression reveals tradeoff between computational cost and capturing supertwist”.