research

Modeling and simulation of biological systems

Rafael Lahoz-Beltra (Madrid, 1962) is Associate Professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution (Biomathematics), Faculty of Biology, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. In 1979 and 1982 he awarded two Accesits in the XI and XIV  "(Philips) Holland Prize for Young Scientists and Inventors". In 1986 he was selected and awarded a scholarship to participate in the "Second International Meeting of Young Researchers" held in Salamanca (Spain). Lahoz-Beltra earned a BS degree in Biological Sciences in 1985 and his Ph.D. in 1989 from the Complutense University of Madrid.

From 1989 to 1990 he was a Fulbright Scholar (Visiting Research Scholar) in the 'Department of Systems Science, TJ Watson School of Engineering, State University of New York (Binghamton) ', continuing from 1990 until 1992 his post-doctoral stage as a Fulbright Scholar, and later FPI / MEC in the' Department of Anesthesiology, Health Sciences Center, University of Arizona (Tucson) '. Since 1992 he is member of the J. William Fulbright Association / United States-Spanish Joint Committee for Cultural and Educational Cooperation. In 2008 he worked with a grant of 'Professors UCM' in the School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham (UK). In 2015 he received a "Salvador de Madariaga" grant working on a three-month stay in the Department of Computing Science & Maths, University of Stirling (Scotland, UK).

To date he has conducted research on cellular automata, the origin of life, neuronal plasticity and synaptic regulation in artificial and biological neural networks, design of molecular automata applied to self-assembly in structural biology, e.g. the E. coli membrane construction, including flagellar ATPase motor as well as information processing in microtubules and the cytoskeleton; identifying and suggesting new architectures for designing of biomolecular computers. Currently his main research interests include evolutionary computation, models of embryonic development, quantum biology and design of bio-inspired algorithms. At present his main interest is the quantum computation, the design of simulation models in quantum biology and the study of evolution with synthetic bacterial agents. He is also very interested in the hybridization between evolutionary algorithms and principles of synthetic biology.

Since 2001 he is a reviewer / referee in the following scientific journals with impact factor: BioSystems, Journal Teoretical Biology, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Computers & Education, Applied Mathematics Letters, Complexity, MDPI Journals, etc.

So far I have worked on the following research topics, ordered chronologically. At each stage of my life I have worked on problems related to each other, trying to answer basic questions about biological systems. However, in each of the issues I've worked, the question was always the same [1], what is life?

Research topics:

• Cellular computing and information processing in microtubules and cytoskeleton.
  

• Molecular automata modeling.
  

• Evolutionary algorithms and computation.
  

• Towards a morphogenetic field theory.
  

• Quantum computing applied to biology.
  

• Evolutionary synthetic biology.
  

• Synthetic Biology  & Evolutionary Computation.
  

Other (collaborations, projects, etc.):

• Numerical models in biology and statistical analysis of data.
  

Spanish and foreign scholars who have participated in research projects, dissertations and Minor/PhD Theses, Master's Degree, etc. :

Yolanda González Moneo, Daniel Thai Dam, Jose Manuel Peña Hinojosa, Guil Sara López, Carlos Recio Rincon, Rafael Griman, Julio Estrella, Jaime Huertas, Vieri Di Paola (Italy), Nelly Selem Mojica (Mexico), Julio Gil García, Carlos Perales Gravan, Marte Hoyerm Rorvik (Norway), Mercedes Fernandez Rosell, Carlos de las Morenas, Ulises Sanchez Iñiguez, Antonio Gomez Mompeam, Alvaro Gargantilla Becerra, Roxana Juarez Rodriguez.

Research projects and ideas that we are currently working

At present we are very interested in the subject of quantum biology, 'quantum evolution' and Synthetic Biology  & Evolutionary Computation.