Satellite Meeting:

Complex Dynamics in Cellular Systems


September 5, 2012

Cells are in essence complex systems where global behaviour cannot be understood from the simple collection of the individual properties of the constituting entities. Cellular systems are composed of many different parts connected by numerous non-linear and dynamical interactions. These interactions occur at the genetic, metabolic and transport levels. Systems Biology, which represents a very active research field, aims at analysing and modelling how these interactions can give rise to the spatio-temporal organisation that underlies living systems in physiological and pathological conditions. Most of the time, stochastic effects cannot be neglected given the rather small numbers of molecules involved at this microscopic level. Understanding the relationships between the complex architecture of biological systems and its robustness to molecular noise has motivated many recent works in theoretical biology. Moreover, it is now clear that noise can also have a constructive role in the generation of spatio-temporal cellular structures.