Bradley Karas

PhD Student, School of Earth and Space Exploration

Research Interests: Astrobiology, space exploration, planetary science, information processing in biological systems, physics of living systems

Education: BS in Physics from Grand Valley State University, BS in Exploration Systems Design from Arizona State University

Current Research: Currently looking at the information processing dynamics of the p53 gene regulatory network. I am using a simplified computational model of the p53 network to simulate its response to the presence of DNA damage. This damage to the network is in the form of a single node or a single edge deletion. The p53 gene network is interesting in that it regulates how the cell responds to that damage. The response to damage is generally characterized by either suspending the cell cycle to allow for repair of damage or to undergo programmed cell death by apoptosis depending on the severity of damage.

I am also working full time at the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Science Operations Center as a research technician. There, I make digital elevation maps (DEMs) of the lunar surface from the high resolution stereo images taken by the narrow angle cameras on LRO.