Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 24: Systems biology

BP 24.1: Topical Talk

Wednesday, April 2, 2014, 09:30–10:00, ZEU 250

Collaboration between biomolecules: A physical analysis — •Ulrich Gerland — Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München, Germany

In biology, different molecules often collaborate on a common task, creating functionalities far beyond what a single type of molecule could accomplish. The physical principles underlying this synergism are only beginning to be understood and exploited in engineered systems. I will present a theoretical study that focuses on enzymes which collaborate to catalyze multi-step biochemical reactions. Cells often coordinate the spatial arrangement of such enzyme teams, into intra- or extra-cellular clusters, or co-localize them on the cell membrane. We study the impact of the spatial arrangement on the reaction efficiency within reaction-diffusion models [1,2]. Remarkably, although the study of reaction-diffusion systems has a long history, many questions about systems with localized reaction centers remain largely unexplored.
[1] A. Buchner, F. Tostevin, and U. Gerland (2013) Clustering and optimal arrangement of enzymes in reaction-diffusion systems. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 208104.
[2] A. Buchner, F. Tostevin, F. Hinzpeter, and U. Gerland (2013) Optimization of collective enzyme activity via spatial localization. J. Chem. Phys. 139, 135101.