Executive Director, Philippine Genome Center
June 1, 2016 – July 31, 2017
Research Professor, University of the Philippines System
PhD Chemistry, University of Alberta (Canada), Chemical Physics Program
Areas of Current Research: Systems Biology of Cancer, Network Pharmacology, Computational Modeling
Dr. Aguda is a multidisciplinary scientist who started his scientific career as a theoretical-physical chemist investigating the nonlinear dynamics of complex biochemical reaction systems, developing methods for predicting interaction network instabilities and the construction of predictive computational models. For the past 16 years, he has focused the applications of his methods to understanding how certain perturbations of gene & molecular interaction networks could lead to cancer. His initial contributions include seminal papers on checkpoints in the mammalian cell cycle [1-3]. He and his co-workers have further published mechanistic models of other cellular processes associated with hallmarks of cancer ([4-8]), and in 2008 his book Models of Cellular Regulation was published by Oxford University Press [9]. Constructing these complex gene regulatory network models has become increasingly possible as high-throughput data-acquisition technologies and omics datasets become available.
More recently, Dr. Aguda has authored or co-authored a series of highly-cited papers on microRNAs – as biomarkers of human disease [10-11] and their roles in the regulation of cancer networks [12]. As evidence of the impact of his work, Dr. Aguda has been invited to contribute chapters in books on advances in the field [13-14].
The ultimate goal of Dr. Aguda’s research program is the control of gene & molecular networks that are deregulated during malignant transformation. He advocates the paradigm of network pharmacology that proposes targeting gene networks using combinations of drugs instead of the old one drug-one target strategy (see [15] for his review of the network pharmacology of glioblastoma). At the Philippine Genome Center, one of the projects of his research group is the creation of network modules databases that serve, in association with novel computer algorithms being created by his group, as in silico platforms to aid in combination drug targets & disease biomarkers discovery.
Dr. Aguda has held faculty positions in Canada (Laurentian University) and the USA (Boston University School of Medicine), and senior research or visiting faculty positions at Singapore’s Biopolis (Bioinformatics Institute), Ohio State University (Mathematical Biosciences Institute), and the National Cancer Institute (National Institutes of Health, USA). As part of his services to his scientific community, he has refereed papers for at least 33 international scientific journals, reviewed research grant proposals for at least 9 international granting agencies, organized or co-organized many international conferences. Dr. Aguda has been an invited seminar speaker at Harvard University (USA), Caltech (USA), Weizmann Institute (Israel), University of Cambridge (UK), and Humboldt University (Germany), among many other research-intensive institutions.
For more of Dr. Aguda’s publications, visit his Google Scholar Citations and ResearchGate.
CITED REFERENCES
[1] Aguda BD, “Instabilities in Phosphorylation-Dephosphorylation Cascades and Cell cycle Checkpoints”, Oncogene 18 : 2846-2851 (1999).
[2] Aguda BD & Tang Y, “The kinetic origins of the restriction point in the mammalian cell cycle”, Cell Proliferation 32: 321-335 (1999).
[3] Aguda BD, “A quantitative analysis of the kinetics of the G2 DNA damage checkpoint system”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96 : 11352-11357 (1999).
[4] Aguda BD & Algar CK, “Structural analysis of the qualitative networks regulating the cell cycle and apoptosis”, Cell Cycle 2: 538-544 (2003).
[5] Craciun G, Aguda BD & Friedman A, “A detailed mathematical analysis of a modular network coordinating the cell cycle and apoptosis,” Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering 2: 473-485 (2005).
[6] Wee KB & Aguda BD, “Akt versus p53 in a network of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes regulating cell survival and death,” Biophys J. 91: 857-865 (2006).
[7] Wee KB, Surana U & Aguda BD (2009) “Oscillations of the p53-Akt Network: Implications on Cell survival and death”. PLoS ONE 4(2): e4407.
[8] Aguda BD, Kim Y, Kim HS, Friedman A, Fine HA (2011) “Qualitative network modeling of the myc-p53 control system of cell proliferation and differentiation”, Biophysical Journal 101: 20892-2091.
[9] Aguda BD & Friedman A, Models of Cellular Regulation, Oxford University Press (2008).
[10] Hunter MG, N. Ismail, X. Zhang, B. D. Aguda, E. J. Lee, L. Yu, T. Xiao, J. Schafer, M.-L. T. Lee, T. Schmittgen, P. Nana-Sinkam, D. Jarjoura, C. B. Marsh (2008) “Detection of microRNA expression in human peripheral blood microvesicles” PLoS ONE 3(11):e3694. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003694
[11] Visone R, LZ Rassenti, A Veronese, C Taccioli, S Costinean, BD Aguda, S Volinia, Palatini, V Balatti, H Alder, TJ Kipps, CM Croce (2009) “Karyotype specific microRNA signature in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia”, Blood. 114: 3872-3879.
[12] Aguda BD, Y. Kim, M. Piper-Hunter, A. Friedman & C. Marsh (2008), “MicroRNA regulation of a cancer network: Consequences of the feedback loops involving miR-17-92, E2F and Myc”, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105: 19678-19683.
[13] Aguda BD, “Modeling microRNA-Transcription Factor Networks in Cancer,” in MicroRNA Cancer Regulation – Advanced Concepts, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Tools (Eds: Ulf Schmitz, Olaf Wolkenhauer & Julio Vera), New York: Springer (2013).
[14] Aguda BD, “The Significance of the Feedback Loops between KRas and Ink4a in Pancreatic Cancer,” in Molecular Diagnostics and Therapy of Pancreatic Cancer (Ed: Asfar Azmi). Elsevier Academic Press (2014).
[15] Aguda BD (2013). “Network Pharmacology of Glioblastoma”. Current Drug Discovery Technologies. 10: 125-138.
