tyson murray
Thesis Director: Dr. Qing-Xiang (Amy) Sang, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
"“My name is Tyson Murray and I graduated this Fall 2019 with double degrees in Biochemistry with Honors and Biomathematics. My Honors [thesis] was the creation of a mathematical model that predicts the oscillations of individual proteins that consistently fluctuate on a 24-hour period and create the circadian rhythm that resonates throughout the human body all the way down to individual cells. This project held relevancy because cancer causes extreme changes in these “clock” proteins that result in erratic oscillations. By creating a mathematical model, I was able to input all the relevant biological changes that impact these clock proteins and then recreate the oscillations that are seen in the normal human body. After, I tweaked biological factors so that the oscillations were like those induced by carcinogenesis. This ability to identify how carcinogenesis occurs could eventually lead to novel ways to combat it.
The Thesis Award that I received allowed me to take the next step in my Honors Thesis and will lead to a publication. It allowed me to conduct a biological experiment measuring the RNA expression in the individual clock proteins that allowed my base model to become more accurate through in lab testing of the protein oscillations, before the oscillations were gathered from previous works. This step, turning theoretical to concrete, is crucial to publication of a model and was restraining me from submitting it to a journal. The award allowed me to complete more than I thought possible and helped my thesis have a lasting impact.”
-Tyson Murray, Fall 2019 Bess H. Ward Honors in the Major Thesis Award Winner