Spatial Cellular Computations: Merging Theory and Experiment

Datum

12.10.2015

Zeit

15:00 - 16:00

Sprecher

Ali Kinkhabwala

Zugehörigkeit

MPI of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund

Sprache

en

Hauptthema

Biologie

Andere Themen

Biologie

Host

Ivo Sbalzarini

Beschreibung

Biological systems are control systems. They have been tailored by evolution to reliably perform the purposeful computations underlying all cellular processes. Control theory was initiated in the late 19th century to quantitatively describe regulatory machines (“governors”); in the early 20th century it was applied and further extended to their electronic analogues. While classical control systems might account for some forms of biological computation, they lack an essential aspect of many other biological computations: Space ("...the final frontier"). Classical control theory must therefore be generalized, in some currently unknown fashion, to account for spatial cellular computations. I will discuss my own recent efforts to merge classical control theory with biological computations and will speculate on the path ahead. In addition to this theoretical limitation, two experimental limitations hamper our efforts to understand biological computations as well. First, while the subcellular locations of specific biomolecules can be observed to increasingly finer resolution (optical) and/or specificity (EM), we still lack essential information about their local interactions, modifications, and conformations (including at the single protein level). The uniquely powerful technique of fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) offers our best hope for addressing this limitation. Second, even with this better knowledge, biomolecules are typically embedded in complex networks not easily unraveled by conventional perturbative approaches and modeling. This is the problem of component sufficiency (what we really need to know to claim full understanding of a biological computation) as opposed to component necessity (the main information provided by biological research, e.g. through siRNA). One promising solution is synthetic biology, in particular, the heterologous component-wise reconstruction of mammalian networks in the null background of yeast. Touching on the above themes, I will discuss my own interdisciplinary efforts to unravel specific cellular computations carried out within bacteria, yeast, and mammalian cells. A better understanding of biological computations — in particular, spatial computations — should help to spur the design of novel and more powerful forms of electronic computation.

Letztmalig verändert: 30.09.2015, 10:01:04