Abstract

Much of our understanding of cellular information processing, especially at the level of genes, has relied on assumptions of thermodynamic equilibrium. However, there is now increasing experimental evidence that gene regulation may be operating away from equilibrium. I will discuss some of the surprising consequences of both regimes and the challenges that confront us in developing a conceptual landscape for non-equilibrium information processing.

Biosketch

Jeremy Gunawardena is Associate Professor of Systems Biology in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. He is a pure mathematician by training. He gained his PhD in algebraic topology at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected to a Research Fellowship. He then spent several years in industry at Hewlett-Packard (HP) Research Labs, where he founded HP's basic research programme in Europe. He returned to academic life at Harvard Medical School, where his lab studies cellular information processing using a combination of mathematical, computational and experimental methods.

Contact

Jeremy Gunawardena

Department of Systems Biology

Harvard Medical School

200 Longwood Avenue

Boston, MA 02115

t: (617) 432 4839

f: (617) 432 5012

e: jeremy@hms.harvard.edu

w: http://vcp.med.harvard.edu/home.html