Nam Tran: Transfer function of network motifs and what they tell us about signal processing in cells

Nam Tran presents work from his PhD at Swinburne University under the supervision of Andrew Clayton and from his post-doc at Drexel University in the group of Ania-Ariadna Baetica.
Abstract.
Part1: Transfer function of biochemical network motifs
Network motifs are thought to have special signal processing functions. Biological signals are often delivered in oscillations and pulses. Therefore, it is useful to understand the signal processing functions of network motifs in response to oscillations and pulses. One tool to understand this is the transfer function, which allows us to view the dynamics of these motifs from a frequency domain perspective. We present the transfer function for a selection of motifs. We show how each motif exhibits different filtering properties and highlight their potential roles in signaling within the cell.
Part 2: Sensitivity function of biochemical feedback loops
Feedback loops allow biological systems to effectively respond to their changing environment. However, the biochemical conditions that make up these feedback loop mechanisms can vary. Quantifying how robust these feedback loops are to such variations can help us understand how well biological systems implement feedback. Previous research has found that cells might commonly use negative feedback because it allocates the sensitivity to parameters that are unlikely to vary such as cooperative binding, while remaining insensitive to parameters such as production and degradation rates. In this research, we performed sensitivity analysis on feedback loops consisting of one and two species involving combinations of positive and negative feedback. Our analysis can provide insight into how synthetic biological circuits can be reliably designed and used in changing environments.
Bio. Nam is currently a postdoc at Drexel University under Prof. Ania-Ariadna Baetica. He obtained his B.S. at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and PhD at Swinburne University (Australia). His current research interests include studying robustness of biological feedback loops, and ways to generalise this for arbitrary dynamics and feedback architectures. Nam enjoys talking about control theory and dynamical systems and physical models in biology, so please don't be shy to reach out if you want to chat!