Specificity and satisfiability in biological information processing networks

By Chris Myers, Cornell University

Jan 27, 2009

CNLS Conference room.

Information processing in both engineered and natural systems occurs through the collective activity of complex networks. The organization and regulation of interaction specificities is central to the robust and evolvable functioning of such networks. Overly specific interactions can leave systems brittle to mutation or change, while more generic or promiscuous interactions can give rise to other fragilities, such as vulnerability to crosstalk. In this talk, I will first summarize some earlier work exploring connections between engineered software systems and evolved biological systems, and will then describe more recent work investigating the structure of molecular discrimination problems in high-dimensional sequence spaces, emphasizing connections to computational complexity theory (e.g., phase transitions in constraint satisfaction problems) and the design of codes in communication systems.

Back to CNLS q-bio Seminars.