HOME About IAB Kumar Selvarajoo

Kumar Selvarajoo

Kumar Selvarajoo, PhD
Institute for Advanced Biosciences
Keio University
14-1 Baba-cho, Tsuruoka
Yamagata, Japan 997-0035

Email: kumar[at]ttck.keio.ac.jp

Tel: +81-235-29-0830
Fax: +81-235-29-0809

My book on: "Immuno Systems Biology: A macroscopic approach for immune cell signaling" is available in major libraries including Stanford, MIT, Yale, Penn, Cornell, etc.,.

Welcome to the: 2nd Symposium on Complex Biodynamics & Networks, May 2015

Background:

Born and bred in the tiny island nation of Singapore, I began having interest in airplanes when I was six. It was intriguing to me then how a massive heavy structure could fly so seamlessly. From then, I developed passion towards becoming a 'designer' for airplanes which led me to pursue Aeronautical Engineering in the UK. There, I learnt about the physical laws of nature at play, that marvelously 'help' do things that otherwise looks impossible. Later, I developed interest in biology to investigate whether similar laws guide living systems.

Research Interests:

At macroscopic level, biological systems show remarkably well orchestrated, self-organized, robust and stable behavior to a wide range of perturbations. At microscopic level, single cells display noisy or stochastic and bursting behaviors. Such dual-mode phenomenon is observed in any complex system (see commentary and review). However, can complex and nonlinear systems display simple linear response? Our research investigates the fundamental behavior of cell response and focuses on the innate immunity and its link to cancer. Over the years, for population level response of immune cells to targeted perturbation, we have shown that the intracellular downstream signaling can be approximated using linear rules derived from the physical law of conservation. In 2011 (see paper), we have used such simplicity to predict a target to enhance apoptosis (programmed cell death) for TRAIL-resistant cancer cells. This has been highlighted by the Science Media Centre of Japan, Nature Japan and several Japanese dailies such as the Yomiuri Shimbun. More recently, we have performed experiments on two cancer types and have confirmed our model prediction (see article). Furthermore, we used our systems biology approach to identify a crucial target for suppressing TNF-induced proinflammatory response experimentally (see article). Overall, our current investigations focus on understanding the unifying laws of microscopic to macroscopic response. Knowing this will potentially enable us to utilize biological 'noise' for useful treatment purposes, for example, overcoming the effects of dynamic heterogeneity in cancer therapeutics. Our current investigations focus on self-organizations of cancer cells. For research opportunities, please write to my email above.

Appointments

2006-present, Assistant to Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Japan
2004-2006, Project Leader, Cell-Interaction Group, Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, Singapore
2001-2004, Bioinformatics Specialist, National Cancer Centre, Singapore
2002-2004, Director of Technology, Systome Therapeutics Pte Ltd (spin-off company)
1998-2000, Computational Analysis Engineer, Singapore Technologies

Academic duties

Instructor, Biological Networks (Graduate Course, Spring Semester, covering Boolean Logics, Differential Equations, Stochastic Algorithm, Correlation Metrics)
Chair, Undergraduate English skill evaluation committee
Instructor & Reviewer, Master Recherche en Informatique (University of Rennes 1, France)

Editorial duties

2012-present, Editor-in-Chief, Advances in Systems Biology, Research Publisher, USA
2014-present, Member, Editorial Board, In Silico Biology, IOS Press, The Netherlands
2011-present, Member, Editorial Board, Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, UK
2008-2015, Member, Editorial Board, Public Library of Science ONE, USA
2010-2014, Associate Editor, Frontiers in Systems Biology, Switzerland

Research Projects

Systems Biology of Innate Immune and Cancer Cell Signaling
Multi-dimensional Dynamic Gene Expression and Noise Analysis

Conference/Symposium Committee

2015, Chair, 2nd Symposium on Complex BioDynamics & Networks (cBio 2015), Tsuruoka
2014, Member, 5th International Conference on Computational Systems-Biology and Bioinformatics, Singapore
2014, Member, 25th Genome Informatics Workshop (GIW), Tokyo
2013, Chair, 1st Symposium on Complex BioDynamics & Networks (cBio 2013), Tsuruoka
2013, Member, 24th Genome Informatics Workshop (GIW), Singapore
2012, Member, 4th Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering (FOSBE), Tsuruoka
2006, Chair, The Systems Biology Symposium, Tsuruoka
2006, Member, Toll-like Receptors in Immunity and Disease, Biopolis, Singapore
2005, Chair, Explorations of Multidisciplinary Advances for Biomarkers Discovery, Biopolis, Singapore

Education

2000-2004, Doctor of Philosophy (Systems Biology), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
1997, Research Internship (Turbomachinery), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, Zurich
1993-1997, Master of Engineering (Aeronautics), Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
1990-1993, Singapore Armed Forces (National Service)

Publications

2015

Selvarajoo K, 'Can the Second Law of Thermodynamics Hold in Cell Cultures?'(2015) Front. Genet.; 6:262.
Simeoni O, Piras V, Tomita M & Selvarajoo K, 'Tracking Global Gene Expression Response in T Cell Differentiation'(2015) Gene; 569(2):259-266.
Selvarajoo K, 'Measuring merit: Take the risk'(2015) Science; 347(6218):139-140.
Piras V & Selvarajoo K,'The Reduction of Gene Expression Variability from Single Cells to Populations follows Simple Statistical Laws'(2015) Genomics; 105(3):137-144.
Hayashi K, Tabata S, Piras V, Tomita M & Selvarajoo K,'Systems Biology Strategy Reveals PKC-delta is Key for Sensitizing TRAIL-Resistant Human Fibrosarcoma'(2015) Front. Immunol.; 5:659.
Selvarajoo K, 'Conceptualising Cell Signaling and Transcriptome-wide Response for Targeted Experimentations'(2015) KEIO SFC J ;15(1):76-101.
Selvarajoo K, 'Microscopic and Macroscopic Insights of Dynamic Cell Behaviour' (2015) In The Future of Scientific Practice, Pickering & Chatto, London, UK, pp 13-29.

2014

Piras V, Tomita M & Selvarajoo K,'Transcriptome-wide Variability in Single Embryonic Development Cells'(2014) Sci. Rep.; 4:7137.
Selvarajoo K,'Parameter-less Approaches for Interpreting Dynamic Cellular Response'(2014) J. Biol. Eng.; 8:23.
Selvarajoo K,'Advances in Systems Immunology and Cancer'(2014) Front. Physiol.; 5:249.
Piras V & Selvarajoo K,'Beyond MyD88 and TRIF in Toll-like Receptor Signaling'(2014) Front. Immunol.; 5:70.
Selvarajoo K, 'Complex Bio-Dynamics and Networks: A Meeting Report' (2014) Adv. Sys. Biol.; 3(1):1-2.
Selvarajoo K, 'Order among Organisms' (2014) International Innovation ; 143(6):58-60.
Tomita M, Tsuchiya M & Selvarajoo K (editors),'Advances in Systems Immunology and Cancer'(2014) Frontiers Research Topic Ebook, ISBN: 978-2-88919-313-4.

2013

Selvarajoo K & Tomita M, 'Physical Laws Shape Biology'(2013) Science; 339(6120):646.
Hayashi K, Piras V, Tabata S, Tomita M & Selvarajoo K, 'A Systems Biology Approach to Suppress TNF-induced Proinflammatory Gene Expressions' (2013) Cell Commun Signal; 11:84.
Selvarajoo K, 'Non-Genetic Adaptive Dynamics for Cellular Robustness' (2013) Front. Genet.; 4:287.
Selvarajoo K, 'Interpreting the Dynamics and Patterns of Living Systems' (2013) Bioscience; 63(9):721-22.
Selvarajoo K & Robert M, 'Open Access and Individual Merits in Scientific Publishing' (2013) Adv. Sys. Biol.; 2(1):4-5.
Selvarajoo K, 'Uncertainty and Certainty in Cellular Dynamics' (2013) Front. Genet.; 4:68.
Selvarajoo K, 'Immuno Systems Biology: A macroscopic approach for immune cell signaling' (2013) Springer, New York, ISBN: 978-1461474593 (150 pages).

2012

Selvarajoo K, 'Advances in Systems Biology' (2012) Adv. Sys. Biol.; 1(1):4.
Piras V, Tomita M, & Selvarajoo K, 'Is central dogma a global property of cellular information flow?' (2012) Front. Physiol.; 3:439.
Selvarajoo K, 'Understanding multimodal biological decisions from single cell and population dynamics' (2012) WIREs Syst Biol Med.; 4(4):385-399.
Selvarajoo K & Giuliani A, 'Finding self-organization from the dynamic gene expressions of innate immune responses' (2012) Front. Physiol.; 3:192.
Selvarajoo K, 'The recognition of chaos in host-pathogen response' (2012) Front. Physiol.; 3:7.
Piras V, Hayashi K, Tomita M, & Selvarajoo K, 'Investigation of stochasticity in TRAIL signaling cancer model' (2012) Proc. IEEE/ICME Com. Med. Eng.; pp609-614.

2011

Piras V, Hayashi K, Tomita M, & Selvarajoo K, 'Enhancing apoptosis in TRAIL-resistant cancer cells using fundamental response rules' (2011) Sci. Rep. ; 1:144.
Selvarajoo K, 'Macroscopic law of conservation revealed in the population dynamics of Toll-like receptor signaling ' (2011) Cell Commun Signal ; 9:9.
Selvarajoo K & Tsuchiya M, 'In a quest to uncover governing principles of cellular networks: a systems biology perspective' (2011) In OMICS: Biomedical Perspectives and Applications, CRC Press, San Diego, USA, pp259-277.
Hayashi K, Piras V, Tomita M, Tsuchiya M & Selvarajoo K,'Emergence of macroscopic simplicity from the Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha signaling dynamics '(2011) Proc. Nonlinear Theory and its Applications , pp 68-71.
Tsuchiya M, Piras V, Tomita M & Selvarajoo K, ' Collective fluctuations are crucial for global biological response ' (2011) Proc. Nonlinear Theory and its Applications , pp 72-75.

2010

Tsuchiya M, Piras V, Giuliani A, Tomita M & Selvarajoo K, 'Collective dynamics of specific gene ensembles crucial for neutrophil differentiation: the existence of genome vehicles revealed ' (2010) PLoS ONE ; 5(8):e12116.

2009

Selvarajoo K,Tomita M & Tsuchiya M, 'Can complex cellular processes be governed by simple linear rules?' (2009) J of Bioinformatics and Comp Biol.; 7(1):243-268.
Helmy M, Gohda J, Inoue J, Tomita M, Tsuchiya M & Selvarajoo K, 'Predicting novel features of Toll-like Receptor 3 signaling in macrophages ' (2009) PLoS ONE ; 4(3):e4661.
Tsuchiya M, Piras V, Choi S, Akira S,Tomita M, Giuliani A & Selvarajoo K, 'Emergent genome-wide control in wildtype and genetically mutated lipopolysaccarides-stimulated macrophages ' (2009) PLoS ONE ; 4(3):e4905.
Tsuchiya M#, Selvarajoo K#, Piras V, Tomita M, Giuliani A, ' Local and global responses in complex gene regulation networks ' (2009) Physica A ; 388(8): 1738-1746, # equal first authors.
Selvarajoo K, Arjunan S & Tomita M, 'In silico models for metabolic 'systems' engineering.'(2009) In Handbook for Metabolic Pathway Engineering, Smolke, C. D., Palsson, B. and Lee, S. Y. (editors). CRC Press, San Diego, USA, pp17.1-23.

2008

Selvarajoo K, Takada Y, Godha J, Helmy M, Akira S, Tomita M, Tsuchiya M, Inoue J & Matsuo K, 'Signaling Flux Redistribution at Toll-like Receptor Pathway Junctions'(2008) PLoS ONE; 3(10): e3430.
Selvarajoo K, Helmy M, Tomita M & Tsuchiya M,'Inferring the mechanistic basis for the dynamic response of the MyD88-dependent and -independent pathways ' (2008) Proc. International Conference on Molecular Systems Biology, pp 110-113.
Helmy M, Tomita M, Tsuchiya M & Selvarajoo K,' In silico analysis of Toll-Like receptor 3 pathways'' (2008) Proc. International Symposium on Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, pp 14-18.

2007

Tsuchiya M, Wong ST, Yeo ZX, Colosimo A, Palumbo MC, Farina L, Crescenzi M, Mazzola A, Negri R, Bianchi MM, Selvarajoo K, Tomita M, & Giuliani A. 'Gene expression waves: cell cycle independent collective dynamics in cultured cells' (2007) FEBS Journal 274:2878-2886.
Yeo ZX, Wong ST, Arjunan S, Piras V, Tomita M, Selvarajoo K, Giuliani A & Tsuchiya M, 'Sequential logic model deciphers dynamic transcriptional control of gene expressions' (2007) PLoS ONE 2(8):e776.
Asti KG, Bastos-Filho JB, Cini M, De Ninno A, Del Giudice E, Drago A, Elia V, Farina L, Gagliasso E, Germano R, Giuliani A, Krishnan A, Levy Leblond JM, Licata I, Modonesi C, Rossi PA, Selvarajoo K, Silvestrini V, Tamino G, Tomita M, Tsuchiya M, Verma C, Vitiello G, Webber CL & Zbilut JP, 'Web era Theatrum Mundi: Another Big Chill in Science?' (2007) Alliage 61:41-46.
Krishnan J, Selvarajoo K, Tsuchiya M, Lee G, & Choi S, 'Toll-like receptor signal transduction'(2007) Exp Mol Med. 39(4):421-438.
Piras V#, Selvarajoo K#, Fujikawa N, Sangdun C, Tomita M, Guiliani A, & Tsuchiya M, 'Statistical analysis of gene expression in innate immune response indicates dynamical interaction between MicroRNA and signalling molecules ' (2007) Genomics and Informatics 5(3):107-112, # equal first authors.
Selvarajoo K, 'Decoding the signalling mechanism of Toll-like receptor 4 signaling pathways in wildtypes and knockouts.' (2007) In E-Cell System: Basic Concepts and Applications guest edited by Ghosh S, Springer - Landes Bioscience, New York, USA, pp 157-167.
Selvarajoo K. & Tsuchiya M, 'Systematic Determination of Biological Network Topology: Non-Integral Connectivity Method (NICM).'(2007) In Introduction to System Biology , Choi S (editor) The Humana Press Inc, pp 449-471.

2006

Selvarajoo K, 'Discovering Differential Activation Machinery of the Toll-Like Receptor (TLR) 4 Signaling Pathways in MyD88 Knockouts ' (2006) FEBS Lett. 580:1457-1464.

Patents

Tan P & Selvarajoo K, 'Modelling of Biochemical Pathways ' US National Application Number: 10/222 029, International Application Number: PCT/ GB2002 /003
Selvarajoo K & Tsuchiya M, 'Non-Integral Connectivity Method (NICM) for the Discovery of Biological Network Topology' Priority Application Number: 60/728,299

Awards & Honors

2011, Marquis Who's Who in the World.
2011, 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century, IBC, Cambridge.
2004 Finalist, Young Inventors Award 2003. Far Eastern Economics Review and Dow Jones.
2002 Winner and Team Leader of Systome Therapeutics. StartUp@Singapore Competition. A National Techno-Venture Business Plan Competition
2001 Winner, Best Intellectual Property Filing. National Cancer Centre's Annual Academic Awards
2000 Nanyang Technological University CANES Research Scholar
1994 Winner, Best Aircraft Structure Design Competition, Imperial College.