Coordinator: A.Sengupta (Bell Labs)

Dynamics plays an essential role in biological regulatory systems. The most immediate manifestations are the intrinsically dynamical cyclic behaviors like cell cycle and circadian rhythm. Equally important are the dynamics of transient response to stimulus and adaptation which often involve multiple feedback mechanisms acting over different time scales. Modeling the dynamics of biological networks involves the study of non-linear, stochastic dynamical systems. Some of the issues that arise often are:

1) The nature of the stable dynamical state for different parts of the parameter space:
                Under what condition does the system have a  single or multiple steady states, or exhibit stable oscillations?
                Are chaotic dynamics possible? 

2) The  influence of noise on the dynamics and the performance of the network:
                How large is the phase diffusion in a biological clock?
                How variable is gene expression patterns under the same conditions?
                How much amplification is necessary in a signaling cascade to keep signal to noise ratio large enough? 

3) Nature of feedback in networks and adaptation: 
                Perfect versus imperfect adaptation, gain-bandwidth issues, feedback and noise stability, etc.

To better understand these issues the program will focus on a few well defined problems:
       a)  Stability of Circadian Rhythm
       b) Cell Cycle and its modeling
       c) Synthetic networks and noise in gene expression

Preliminary Schedule :

	Mon 3/24	Tue 3/25	Wed 3/26	Thu 3/27
9:00		M.Young (Rockefeller)
9:30	J.Dunlap (Dartmouth)	Biological Clocks	F.Cross (Rockefeller)
10:00	How Does a Circadian Clock Work?	Break	Cell Cycle	A. Sengupta (Rutgers)
10:30	Break	C. Hong (Virginia)	Break	Discussion: Adaptation in Bio-Networks
11:00	P.Ruoff (Stavanger)	Modelling Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Circadian Rhythms in D. melanogoster	P.Swain (McGill)
11:30	Modelling Circadian Clocks	J.Vilar (Rockefeller)	Stochastic Gene Expression in Single Cells
12:00		Modeling Noise, Switches and Clocks