Sanjay Jain, External Professor, SFI

SFI News:

The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) will host a seminar at 12:15 p.m., July 14, in the Collins Conference Room, SFI, 1399 Hyde Park Road in Santa Fe.

The featured speaker is Sanjay Jain, SFI University External Professor.

Abstract: A self-reproducing cell in an exponential phase steady state culture must double the population of each of its component molecular species between birth and division. Achieving this “balanced growth” wherein thousands of chemicals coordinate their doubling in the same time is a remarkable regulatory feat on the part of a cell, and its origin remains a puzzle.

It is believed that this is achieved by various regulatory mechanisms in the cell such as checkpoints, feedback circuits, etc. I will argue, based on mathematical models of cellular dynamics, that there exists an alternative self-organizing process in growing-dividing cells that achieves balanced growth spontaneously without any sophisticated regulatory mechanisms. This self-organizing process which also leads to cellular homeostasis in fact exists in a large class of self-reproducing systems. It is likely to have been conserved from protocells at the origin of life down to modern cells.  

Note: SFI is unable to accommodate members of the public for SFI’s limited lunch service; Attendees are welcome to bring their own.

Click here to view the online event listing.

The Santa Fe Institute is a nonprofit research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Its scientists collaborate across disciplines to understand the complex systems that underlie critical questions for science and humanity. The Institute is supported by philanthropic individuals and foundations, forward-thinking partner companies, and government science agencies.