Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 20: Regulation

BP 20.3: Talk

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 10:15–10:30, H 1058

Rare switching in non-stationary gene regulation networks — •Nils Becker and Pieter Rein ten Wolde — AMOLF Institut, Amsterdam

Rare barrier-crossing events act as dynamical bottlenecks in a broad variety of physical and biological systems. Examples include crystal nucleation, earthquakes, population genetics, protein folding and genetic switches. In biological systems, the switch-like response to a time-dependent signal can be central to their function. For in- stance, metastable biochemical networks switch in response to time- dependent stimuli in a switch-like manner, and sensory cells react stochastically to weak transient signals. Here the system response depends on the temporal characteristics of the input and cannot be characterized by a single rate constant. We present a novel enhanced sampling method, Non-Stationary Forward Flux Sampling, that al- lows efficient simulation of rare events in these systems. Using the method, we investigate the time-dependent response of a model system based on the phage-lambda genetic switch.