Seminars
Date:
07
July, 2024
Sunday
Hour:
13:15-14:30
The Clore Center for Biological Physics
What does the system “care about”?
Empirical approaches to identifying biological regulation
What does the system “care about”?
Empirical approaches to identifying biological regulation
Prof. Naama Brenner | Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Network Biology Research Lab, Technion
Lunch will be served at 12:45
Biological systems regulate their action at multiple levels of organization, from molecular circuits to physiological function. This “homeostasis” maintains stability of the system in the face of external and internal perturbation. How exactly this is achieved remains a topic of ongoing investigation; challenges are high dimensionality, many coupled positive and negative feedback loops, conflicting regulation demands and interaction with the environment.
Here I will introduce an empirical approach to the fundamental question – how do we know what it is that the system really “cares about”? What variable, or combination of variables, is under regulation? Two data-driven methods will be presented. one based on statistical analysis and applied to bacterial growth and division, revealing a hierarchy of regulation – from tightly regulated to sloppy variables. The second is based on a machine-learning algorithm we developed to identify regulation with minimal assumptions. This provides a different angle on the problem and highlights directions for future research.
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