Johan Paulsson
Dept of Systems Biology, Harvard Med School

Very Special IF this friday 26/02/2010 at 15:00 !

Quantitative approaches to phenotypic heterogeneity in single cells

Abstract: Life in single cells is dictated by chance: Reactions that involve small numbers of molecules generate spontaneous fluctuations that enslave all dependent processes. Such 'noise' can randomize developmental pathways, disrupt cell cycle control or force metabolites away from their optimal levels. It can also be exploited for advantageous heterogeneity or even for more deterministic control. I will discuss new conceptual frameworks for analyzing such processes, addressing many of the complications and challenges in cellular dynamics in ways that promote intuition and facilitate comparisons with experiments. The principles discussed will be illustrated by homeostatic feedback control, partitioning at cell division, stochastic gene expression, multimerization, and small RNAs.

Links about Johan Paulsson :
http://sysbio.med.harvard.edu/faculty/paulsson/
http://paulsson.med.harvard.edu/Paulsson_Lab.htm