Natalia L. Komarova

Picture of Natalia L. Komarova
Professor, Mathematics
School of Physical Sciences
Ph.D., University of Arizona, 1998, Applied Mathematics
University of California, Irvine
237 Multipurpose Science & Tec
Mail Code: 3875
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Mathematical biology: modeling of cancer initiation and progression; dynamics of DNA transcription and repair; modeling of learning and evolution of language
Academic Distinctions
2006-2007, Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for Research, awarded by the Academice Senate, UCI.

2005 Sloan Fellowship award

2002 recipient of the Prize for Promise ($90,000), given to a “woman of exceptional ability, ambition, brilliance, courage, dedication and vision”.
Research Abstract
My interests lie in the interface between mathematical and life sciences. I try to formulate interesting questions in areas of biology, medical and social sciences and linguistics, in the language of mathematics. Then I look for answers to these questions by using techniques of applied mathematics. My two main interests are modeling of cancer and evolution of language.
Publications
Book:

Computational biology of cancer: lecture notes on mathematical modeling. (2004) To be published by World Scientific (jointly with D.Wodarz).

Selected Recent Publications:

Komarova, N.L. and Wodarz, D. (2007) Stochastic modeling of cellular colonies with quiescence: an application to drug resistance in cancer. To appear in Theor Popul Bio.

Komarova, N.L., Sadovsky, A.V. and Wan, F.M.Y. (2007) Selective pressures for and against genetic instability in cancer: a time-dependent problem. Jour. of the Royal Society Interface, DOI 10.1098/rsif.2007.1054

Komarova, N.L., Wodarz, D., Boland, C.R. & Goel, A. (2007) Genetic and epigenetic pathways to colon cancer: relating experimental evidence with modeling. To appear in Nicola Bellomo, Mark Chaplain, and Elena De Angelis (Eds), Selected topics on cancer modeling: genesis - evolution - immune competition - therapy. Birkhauser, Boston.

Komarova, N.L. (2007) Loss- and gain-of-function mutations in cancer: mass-action, spatial and hierarchical models. Jour. Stat. Phys. 128, pp. 413-446.

Wodarz, D. and Komarova, N.L. (2007) Can loss of apoptosis protect against cancer? Trends in Genetics 23(5), pp. 232-7.

Komarova, N.L., Baldi, P. and Wu, L. (2007) The fixed-size Luria-Delbruck model with a nonzero death rate. Math. Biosciences doi:10.1016/j.mbs.2007.04.007.

Komarova, N.L., Zou, X., Nie, Q. & Bardwell, L. (2007) Mathematical Models of Specificity in Cell Signaling. Biophys Jour. 92(10), pp. 3425-41

Komarova, N.L., Jameson, K.A. and Narens, L. (2007) Evolutionary models of color categorization based on discrimination. To appear in Journal of Math Psychology.

Komarova, N.L. (2006) Spatial stochastic models of cancer initiation and progression. Bull. Math. Biol. DOI: 10.1007/s11538-005-9046-8, pp. 1-27.

Komarova, N.L. & Cheng, P. (2006) Epithelial tissue architecture protects against cancer. Math Biosciences , 200(1), pp 90-117.

Komarova, N.L. (2006) Population dynamics of human language: a complex system. Frontiers of engineering: reports on leading-edge engineering from the 2005 symposium, The National Academy Press, pp. 89-98.

Komarova, N.L. (2006) Stochastic modeling of drug resistance in cancer. Jour. Theor. Biol. , 239(3), pp. 351-366

Komarova, N.L., Zou, X., Nie, Q. & Bardwell, L. (2005) A theoretical framework for specificity in cell signaling. Molecular Systems Biol. doi:10.1038/msb4100031, E1-E5

Komarova, N.L. (2005) Cancer, aging and the optimal tissue design. Semin Cancer Biol., 15(6), pp. 494-505.

Wodarz, D. & Komarova, N.L. (2005) Emergence and prevention of resistance against small molecule inhibitors. Semin Cancer Biol. 15(6), pp. 506-14.

Komarova, N.L. & Wodarz, D. (2005) Drug resistance in cancer: principles of emergence and prevention. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 102 (27), pp. 9714-9.

Komarova, N.L. & Soffer, A. (2005) Nonlinear waves in double-stranded DNA. Bull. Math. Biol. 67(4), pp. 701-718, also arXiv:cond-mat/0411621

Komarova, N.L. & Mironov, V. (2005) On the role of endothelial progenitor cells in tumor neovascularization. Jour. Theor. Biol. 235 (3), pp. 338-49

Iwasa, Y., Michor, F., Komarova, N.L. and Nowak, M. (2005) Population genetics of tumor suppressor genes. Jour. Theor. Biol. 233 pp. 15-23.
Last updated
03/10/2015