James Ferrell

Administrative Appointments

• Chair, Stanford University School of Medicine - Chemical & Systems Biology (2006 - present)

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Kangbeom Kwon , Silvia Magalhaes Dos Santos , Qiong Yang

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Biochemistry
• Biophysics
• Cancer Biology
• Chemical and Systems Biology

Community & International Work

• PRD-1-Day Band Performance, Opening Ceremony, Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China 

Web Site Links

• http://www.stanford.edu/group/ferrelllab/

Research Interests

Our research centers on the signal transduction circuits that trigger the entry into mitotic and meoitic M-phase, the progression through these phases, and the exit from M-phase to interphase.

Some of our work is aimed at identifying as-yet unidentified components of these regulatory circuits. The rest of our work is aimed at understanding the systems level logic of these circuits--how cells build reliable switches, oscillators, and response networks out of imperfect components.

Publications

• Simple and realistic models of complex biological processes: A cell-fate switch and the mitotic trigger. Ferrell JE, Pomerening JR, Kim SY, Trunnell NB, Xiong W, Huang CY, Machleder EM. FEBS Lett. 2009
• Tuning the activation threshold of a kinase network by nested feedback loops. Justman QA, Serber Z, Ferrell JE, El-Samad H, Shokat KM. Science. 2009; 324 (5926): 509-12
• Concordant regulation of translation and mRNA abundance for hundreds of targets of a human microRNA. Hendrickson DG, Hogan DJ, McCullough HL, Myers JW, Herschlag D, Ferrell JE, Brown PO. PLoS Biol. 2009; 7 (11): e1000238
• Report on EU-USA workshop: how systems biology can advance cancer research (27 October 2008). Aebersold R, Auffray C, Baney E, Barillot E, Brazma A, Brett C, Brunak S, Butte A, Califano A, Celis J, Cufer T, Ferrell J, Galas D, Gallahan D, Gatenby R, Goldbeter A, Hace N, Henney A, Hood L, Iyengar R, Jackson V, Kallioniemi O, Klingmüller U, Kolar P, Kolch W, Kyriakopoulou C, Laplace F, Lehrach H, Marcus F, Matrisian L, Nolan G, Pelkmans L, Potti A, Sander C, Seljak M, Singer D, Sorger P, Stunnenberg H, Superti-Furga G, Uhlen M, Vidal M, Weinstein J, Wigle D, Williams M, Wolkenhauer O, Zhivotovsky B, Zinovyev A, Zupan B. Mol Oncol. 2009; 3 (1): 9-17
• Q&A: systems biology. Ferrell JE, J Biol. 2009; 8 (1): 2