Dr Mike Cooling
Mike Cooling is a Research Fellow at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Shown is a schematic of a quantitative model of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate production in the cardiac myocyte, used to explore how the same intracellular pathway can give rise to different responses on hormone stimulation.
Research Interests
Signal Transduction in the Cardiac and Vascular Systems
To develop an understanding of multiscale processes following hormone stimulation leading to tissue degradation, particularly in cardiac hyperophy and cerebral aneurisms. At the intracellular level, topical questions surround the interplay of calcium signalling components in cardiac myocytes following alpha-adrenergic stimuation. At the tissue level, to investigate the hormonal communication between different cell types in the vascular walls, and their effect on gene regulation of the matrix metalloproteinases that drive extra-cellular matrix remodelling.
Modular, Mathematical Modelling
To develop leading practices for developing reusable, modular mathematical models, applicable to both Systems and Synthetic Biology. Working with the CellML team, as well as collaborators in Europe and the UK to develop libraries of models, supported by ontologies, metadata standards, repositories and 'BioCAD' tools, for faster, more accurate model development. Aiming to support insight generation for problems of increasing complexity, without increasing the time spent on model (re)construction phases.