Lecturer: Dr. Rami Pugatch
Affiliation: Simons Center for Systems Biology,
School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton
Abstract:
A bacterial cell is a complex self-replicating
chemical factory. Like other factories it
contains a set of processing units that
convert raw material to useful end-products
in finite time while burning free energy
(cost). Proper function of the factory
requires a schedule, which in a cellular
context is a distributed autonomous
mechanism to temporally assign production
tasks to processing units respecting
ordering constraints.
In this talk I will explain how a physics
perspective on the problem of production
scheduling of a self replicating factory
allows an unexpected simplification. I will
show how an old model devised by J. Von
Neuman, can be adapted to not only
successfully predicting the cell's modus
operandi with respect to the instruction
(DNA) copying mechanism, but can also be
used to describe the global temporal
organization of self replication, allowing a
novel universal view of all cellular
processes occuring within single-cell
organisms.
I will explain the model, and how it can be
used in conjunction to a novel type of
random matrix ensemble to obtain a
surprising result: cells can optimally
schedule their self replication by charging
their catalytic and substrate pools, such that
the demand for input materials (processing
units and substrates) is satisfied
dynamically.
Related material:
PANS
Reviewed in:
PHYS