31 October 2014
Brian Munsky
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Colorado State University at Fort Collins
Spatial, temporal and stochastic fluctuations may cause genetically identical cells to exhibit wildly different behaviors. Often labeled "noise", these fluctuations are frequently considered a nuisance that compromises cellular responses, complicates modeling, and makes predictive understanding all but impossible. However, if we examine cellular fluctuations more closely, we may discover an untapped, yet powerful information resource. In particular, I will discuss how we integrate single-cell experiments with precise spatial stochastic analyses to obtain new insight and quantitatively predictive understanding for heterogeneous gene regulation in bacteria, yeast and mammalian systems.