Seminar of Physics of the Living State

(The Applied Physics Scientific Section)

(*) Summary (In preparation)

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(**) Professor Moises Santillan is at the Computational Systems Biology Laboratory,
Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del IPN,
Unidad Monterrey, Mexico. His research interests include
knowing the complete genome of a given species is just a piece of the puzzle. To fully unveil the systems behaviour of an organism, an organ, or even a single cell, we need to understand the underlying gene regulatory dynamics. Given the complexity of the whole system, the ultimate goal is unattainable for the moment. But perhaps, by analyzing the most simple genetic systems, we may be able to develop the mathematical techniques and procedures required to tackle more complex genetic networks in the near future.


    He is interested in developing mathematical models of simple bacterial gene networks, like the tryptophan, lactose, and galactose operons, and the phage lambda switch. The relative simplicity of these systems and the huge amount of experimental data available in the literature make them excellent candidates to develop realistic mathematical models and advance, one step at a time, in the formerly mentioned direction. Some of the problems Professor Santillan is currently working on are:
•    Dynamic robustness and thermodynamic optimization in gene regulatory networks.
•    Multistability and stochastic behaviour in the lac operon and the phage lambda switch.
Time delays and oscillations in eukaryotic molecular clocks.