Wikipedia

Alan Garfinkel

Alan Garfinkel is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in the departments of Medicine (Cardiology)[1] and Integrative Biology and Physiology.[2][3] His research work applies nonlinear dynamics to cardiac arrhythmias and to the creation of biological patterns in space and time. As a teacher, he created a new course to teach dynamics and modeling to biology students, with no "calculus" prerequisite.[4][5]

Early life and education

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Alan Garfinkel was born in Brooklyn, New York. After attending public schools in New York City, he graduated from Cornell University in 1966 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy. After two years at MIT, he moved to Harvard University, where he earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1975.[2]

Research and career

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In Garfinkel's PhD dissertation, written under Hilary Putnam, which Yale University Press published as Forms of Explanation, he proposed the notion of contrastive explanation, that an answer to the question "Why X?" is really an answer to "Why X rather than a limited set of alternatives to it?"[6][7]

He became a cardiac researcher and modeler. He and his team identified mathematical (deterministic) chaos in a real rabbit cardiac arrhythmia, then used "chaos control" techniques to stabilize the arrhythmia into periodic beating.[8] Using analytical techniques from nonlinear dynamics, he and his colleagues Zhilin Qu and James N. Weiss then demonstrated that ventricular fibrillation (VF), the primary cause of sudden cardiac death, is an example of deterministic spatiotemporal chaos, and devised and experimentally verified a mechanism to prevent VF.[9][10][11]

His research interests include the electrophysiology of cells and tissues modeled mathematically, analysis of experimental and clinical arrhythmia data with techniques of nonlinear dynamics, and research and development of pharmacologic and electrophysiological therapies to prevent or regulate arrhythmias. He also studies the role of physiological and pathophysiological oscillations in biological systems, with a particular focus on the mechanisms of their creation and destruction,[12][13][14] and the creation of normal and pathological patterns in biological systems.[15][16]

He started his career as a professor of the philosophy of science at California State University, Northridge. Moving to the University of California, Los Angeles, he held a succession of positions leading to Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Integrative Biology and Physiology (2003–2018), where he is currently Research Professor and Professor Emeritus. In 2019–2020, he was Newton Abraham Visiting Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Lincoln College, University of Oxford.[17]

Awards and honors

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Garfinkel has received awards including Astor Visiting Lecturer, University of Oxford, UCLA University Distinguished Teaching Award (2015) and many others. His text Modeling Life was awarded the Textbook Excellence Award of the Textbook and Academic Authors Association.[18] His patents include "Real time stabilizing system for pulsating activity" (US5447520A).[19][20][21]

Books

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  • Modeling Life: The Mathematics of Biological Systems[22]
  • Forms of Explanation: Rethinking the Questions in Social Theory[23]

Publications

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  • Alan Garfinkel, Mark L Spano, William L Ditto, James N Weiss. Controlling Cardiac Chaos. Science.[8]
  • Alan Garfinkel, Young-Hoon Kim, Olga Voroshilovsky, Zhilin Qu, Jong R Kil, Moon- Hyoung Lee, Hrayr S Karagueuzian, James N Weiss, Peng-Sheng Chen. Preventing ventricular fibrillation by flattening cardiac restitution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[9]
  • Alan Garfinkel, Peng-Sheng Chen, Donald O Walter, Hrayr S Karagueuzian, Boris Kogan, Steven J Evans, Mikhail Karpoukhin, Chun Hwang, Takumi Uchida, Masamichi Gotoh, Obi Nwasokwa, Philip Sager, James N Weiss. Quasiperiodicity and chaos in cardiac fibrillation. The Journal of Clinical Investigation.[24]
  • Alan Garfinkel, Yin Tintut, Danny Petrasek, Kristina Boström, Linda L Demer. Pattern formation by vascular mesenchymal cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[15]
  • Yina Guo, Ting-Hsuan Chen, Xingjuan Zeng, David Warburton, Kristina I. Boström, Chih-Ming Ho, Xin Zhao, and Alan Garfinkel. Branching patterns emerge in a mathematical model of the dynamics of lung development. Journal of Physiology.[16]
  • Lingyun (Ivy) Xiong and Alan Garfinkel. A common pathway to cancer: Oncogenic mutations abolish p53 oscillations. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.[25]
  • Lingyun (Ivy) Xiong and Alan Garfinkel. Are Physiological Oscillations Physiological? Journal of Physiology.[26]

References

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  1. ^ "Researchers - UCLA Heart and Vascular Services".
  2. ^ a b "Faculty Database Production Server | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA". people.healthsciences.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
  3. ^ "UCLA Graduate Programs in Bioscience (GPB)".
  4. ^ Garfinkel, Alan; Bennoun, Steve; Deeds, Eric; Van Valkenburgh, Blaire (2022-02-12). "Teaching Dynamics to Biology Undergraduates: the UCLA Experience". Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 84 (3): 43. doi:10.1007/s11538-022-00999-4. ISSN 1522-9602. PMC 8840928. PMID 35150346.
  5. ^ "Modeling in Biology".
  6. ^ Miller, Tim (2021). "Contrastive explanation: a structural-model approach". The Knowledge Engineering Review. 36. arXiv:1811.03163. doi:10.1017/S0269888921000102. ISSN 0269-8889. S2CID 53209421.
  7. ^ Garfinkel, Alan (1981). Forms of Explanation. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300049021.
  8. ^ a b Garfinkel, Alan; Spano, Mark L.; Ditto, William L.; Weiss, James N. (1992-08-28). "Controlling Cardiac Chaos". Science. 257 (5074): 1230–1235. Bibcode:1992Sci...257.1230G. doi:10.1126/science.1519060. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 1519060. S2CID 30011623.
  9. ^ a b Garfinkel, Alan; Kim, Young-Hoon; Voroshilovsky, Olga; Qu, Zhilin; Kil, Jong R.; Lee, Moon-Hyoung; Karagueuzian, Hrayr S.; Weiss, James N.; Chen, Peng-Sheng (2000-05-23). "Preventing ventricular fibrillation by flattening cardiac restitution". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 97 (11): 6061–6066. doi:10.1073/pnas.090492697. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 18558. PMID 10811880.
  10. ^ Garfinkel, Alan; Weiss, James N.; Baher, Ali; Yang, Junzhong; Qu, Zhilin; Xie, Fagen (2004-03-10). "A simulation study of the effects of cardiac anatomy in ventricular fibrillation". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 113 (5): 686–693. doi:10.1172/JCI17341. ISSN 1558-8238. PMC 351312. PMID 14991066.
  11. ^ Krishnamoorthi, Shankarjee; Perotti, Luigi E.; Borgstrom, Nils P.; Ajijola, Olujimi A.; Frid, Anna; Ponnaluri, Aditya V.; Weiss, James N.; Qu, Zhilin; Klug, William S.; Ennis, Daniel B.; Garfinkel, Alan (2014-12-10). "Simulation Methods and Validation Criteria for Modeling Cardiac Ventricular Electrophysiology". PLOS ONE. 9 (12): e114494. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9k4494K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0114494. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4262432. PMID 25493967.
  12. ^ Xiong, Ivy; Garfinkel, Alan (2022-08-07). "A common pathway to cancer: Oncogenic mutations abolish p53 oscillations". Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. 174: 28–40. doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2022.06.002. ISSN 1873-1732. PMID 35752348. S2CID 250001182.
  13. ^ Tran, Diana; Sato, Daisuke; Yochelis, Arik; Weiss, James; Garfinkel, Alan; Qu, Zhilin (2009). "Bifurcation and Chaos in a Model of Cardiac Early Afterdepolarizations". Phys Rev Lett. 102 (25): 258103. Bibcode:2009PhRvL.102y8103T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.258103. ISSN 1079-7114. PMC 2726623. PMID 19659123.
  14. ^ Guihard, Pierre; Guo, Yina; Wu, Xiuju; Zhang, Lily; Yao, Jiayi; Jumabay, Medet; Yao, Yucheng; Garfinkel, Alan; Bostrom, Kristina (2020-08-08). "Shaping Waves of Bone Morphogenetic Protein Inhibition During Vascular Growth". Circulation Research. 127 (10): 1288–1305. doi:10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.120.317439. PMC 7987130. PMID 32854559. S2CID 221360063.
  15. ^ a b Garfinkel, Alan; Tintut, Yin; Petrasek, Danny; Boström, Kristina; Demer, Linda L. (2004-06-22). "Pattern formation by vascular mesenchymal cells". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (25): 9247–9250. Bibcode:2004PNAS..101.9247G. doi:10.1073/pnas.0308436101. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 438961. PMID 15197273.
  16. ^ a b Guo, Yina; Chen, Ting-Hsuan; Zeng, Xingjuan; Warburton, David; Boström, Kristina I.; Ho, Chih-Ming; Zhao, Xin; Garfinkel, Alan (January 2014). "Branching patterns emerge in a mathematical model of the dynamics of lung development". The Journal of Physiology. 592 (2): 313–324. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2013.261099. ISSN 0022-3751. PMC 3922496. PMID 24247979.
  17. ^ "Newton Abraham Lecture". YouTube.
  18. ^ "Past Textbook Award Recipients". www.taaonline.net. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
  19. ^ "Six faculty selected for UCLA Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award". UCLA. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
  20. ^ "wp-misc.lifesci.ucla.edu" (PDF).
  21. ^ US 5447520, Spano, Mark L.; Ditto, William L. & Garfinkel, Alan et al., "Real time stabilizing system for pulsating activity", published 1995-09-05, assigned to The Regents of the University of California 
  22. ^ Garfinkel, Alan (2017). Modeling life : the mathematics of biological systems. Jane Shevtsov, Yina Guo. Cham, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-319-59731-7. OCLC 1004374799.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  23. ^ Garfinkel, Alan (1981). Forms of explanation : rethinking the questions in social theory. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02136-4. OCLC 6708856.
  24. ^ Garfinkel, A.; Chen, P. S.; Walter, D. O.; Karagueuzian, H. S.; Kogan, B.; Evans, S. J.; Karpoukhin, M.; Hwang, C.; Uchida, T.; Gotoh, M.; Nwasokwa, O. (1997-01-15). "Quasiperiodicity and chaos in cardiac fibrillation". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 99 (2): 305–314. doi:10.1172/JCI119159. ISSN 0021-9738. PMC 507798. PMID 9005999.
  25. ^ Xiong, Ivy; Garfinkel, Alan (2022-08-07). "A common pathway to cancer: Oncogenic mutations abolish p53 oscillations". Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. 174: 28–40. doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2022.06.002. ISSN 1873-1732. PMID 35752348. S2CID 250001182.
  26. ^ Xiong, Ivy; Garfinkel, Alan (2023-08-25). "Are Physiological Oscillations Physiological?". Journal of Physiology. 601: 01–22. doi:10.1113/JP285015.
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