Naama Barkai

Principles of Biological Circuits

• Biological circuits are the building blocks of cellular information processing: what are the principles guiding their design, function and evolution?
• Basic biological processes such as gene expression rely on a small number and therefore vary in a stochastic, unpredictable way. What is the role of variability in information processing and what mechanisms ensure robustness of processes such as embryonic patterning?
• Transcription and replication compete for the same DNA template, and rely on the combined action of general and specific regulatory factors. How are these processes coordinate and how do they communicate with each other?