Biomathematics Seminar
Tuesday 4/1/08

Speaker: Timothy Elston, Department of Pharamcology, UNC Chapel Hill


Title: Modeling intracellular signaling pathways

Abstract
Cells must respond to constantly changing environmental conditions. 
Information about their surroundings is transmitted through signaling 
pathways that receive external cues and initiate the appropriate 
response. The complexity of these signaling pathways has led to the use 
of computational approaches to understand how cells receive and process 
information. In the first part of this talk, mathematical modeling is 
used to provide insight into the mechanisms that underlie pathway 
specificity. Pathway specificity refers to the ability of signaling 
pathways that share common components to generate distinct physiological 
responses. Next a developmental decision that is mediated by the yeast 
mating response pathway is discussed. Depending on the concentration of 
pheromone yeast either undergo chemotrophic growth toward a mating 
partner or initiate a mating response. A combination of mathematical 
modeling and experimental analysis is used to provide insight into the 
mechanisms that regulate this developmental switch.