Seminar on Theoretical Biophysics – Overview

Organization

Thursday, 16:00 s.t. - 18:00, Theresienstr. 37, room A450

Schedule

28.11.19 Mechanics of tubes & epithelial tissues

• Laura Kern: Spatial organization of bacterial transcription and translation
• Leonardo Demarchi: Mechanical Instabilities of Biological Tubes

05.12.19 Forces in the cytoskeleton

• Janni Harju: Self-straining of actively crosslinked microtubule networks
  (Background reading: From cytoskeletal assemblies to living materials)
• Steven Sheridan: Active torque generation by the actomyosin cell cortex drives left–right symmetry breaking
  (Background reading: Active chiral fluids and Actomyosin-driven left-right asymmetry)

12.12.19 Protein evolution

• Christian Sustay: Ribosomes are optimized for autocatalytic production
• Andreea Chelban: Protein evolution speed depends on its stability and abundance and on chaperone concentrations

19.12.19 Biophysics of the immune system

• Matthias Carosi: How the thymus designs antigen-specific and self-tolerant T cell receptor sequences
  (Background reading: Statistical Physics of T-Cell Development and Pathogen Specificity and Thymic Selection of T-Cell Receptors as an Extreme Value Problem)

09.01.20 Genetics & Neuronal Networks

• Sebastian Johansen: Beneficial Mutation–Selection Balance and the Effect of Linkage on Positive Selection
• David Outland: Searching for Collective Behavior in a Large Network of Sensory Neurons

16.01.20 Enzymes & membrane-protein dynamics

• Timo Bras: Enhanced Diffusion of Enzymes that Catalyze Exothermic Reactions
• Matteo Ciarchi: Active Growth and Pattern Formation in Membrane-Protein Systems
  (Background reading: A Toy Model for Active Interfaces)