Presents the Friday Keck Center Teleconference*
From Molecule to Behavior: E. coli's Memory, Computation and Taxis
Yuhai Tu, Ph.D.,
Manager, Theory and Computational Physics
Physical Sciences Department & Computational Biology Center, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
4:00 pm Friday
Sept. 21st , 2007
(Refreshments at 3:45)
5.521 Levin Hall
Abstract: In this talk, I will present our recent work in trying to understand bacterial chemotaxis by using quantitative modeling approach. Based on molecular level knowledge of the E. coli chemotaxis pathway, we will construct a simple model for bacterial chemotaxis and use it to address several interesting, important system-level questions: 1) Does E. coli have memory? How long does it take the cell to forget? 2) What kind of computation is the cell doing in response to stimulus? 3) How does the cell use its memory and computation capability to sense and respond to a minute chemical gradient (food or poison) among a wide range of background. ( http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/yuhaitu.index.html )
