Modeling Emergent Behaviors in Systems Biology

                                                                                                                      

    Pankaj Metha, Boston University

 

 

Biology is full of stunning examples of emergent behaviors – behaviors that arise from, but cannot be reduced to, the interactions of the constituent parts that make up the system under consideration. These behaviors span the full spectrum of length scales, from the emergence of distinct cell fates (e.g. neurons, muscle, etc.) due to the interactions of genes within cells, to the formation of complex ecological communities arising from the interactions of thousands of species. I will discuss examples from our group showing how we are using ideas from statistical mechanics to try to understand emergent behavior in biology focusing on two examples: (a) the dynamics of cellular reprogramming and (b) the emergence of complex microbial communities.

 

*Interested parties wishing to sing up to meet the speaker please contact (Lerena Heintzelman) [log in to unmask]

 

Lerena R. Heintzelman

Department of Physics & Astronomy

Michigan State University

567 Wilson Rd. Room 3261

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-884-5513