Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Chemotactic Systems in Biology

By Pablo Iglesias, Johns Hopkins University

Jan 20, 2009

CNLS Conference room.

Many biological systems have the ability to sense the direction of external chemical sources and respond by polarizing and migrating toward chemoattractants or away from chemorepellants. This phenomenon, referred to as chemotaxis, is crucial for proper functioning of single cell organisms, such as bacteria and amoebae, as well as multi-cellular systems as complex as the immune and nervous systems. Chemotaxis also appears to be important in wound healing and tumor metastasis.

In this talk I will discuss our group's efforts at elucidating the mechanisms underlying chemotaxis. Using known biochemical data, we have developed mathematical models that can account for many of the observed chemotactic behavior of the model organism Dictyostelium. I will discuss experiments used to test these models. Finally, I will describe how information-theoretic methods can be used to evaluate the optimality of the gradient sensing mechanisms.

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