Information Encoding:

Tom Rich, Ph.D., assistant professor of integrative biology and pharmacology,
Medical School and GSBS

Understanding how information is transmitted within cells is the focus of research in Rich’s lab.

Tom Rich, Ph.D.

“To accomplish this,” he said, “we need to monitor how concentrations of signaling molecules change and to also measure the outcome of these changes in the same cell, at the same time. With this information we can use systems engineering and systems identification approaches to understand how information is encoded within these signals.

“While I was finishing my graduate work, I began asking the question, ‘How are virtually all cellular functions regulated by a relatively few signaling pathways?’ Since that time I have concentrated my efforts on developing approaches to measure and understand intracellular signaling pathways.”

Rich, who holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering, did postdoctoral training in cardiovascular dynamics at the National Cardiovascular Research Institute in Osaka, Japan, and in physiology and biophysics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Since joining the health science center in 2002, Rich has obtained grants as a principal investigator from the American Heart Association, Texas Advanced Technology Program and the National Institutes of Health.