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Research

Biological Physics

The biological physics group seeks to understand the dynamics of biological systems arising from interactions at different scales and organizational levels. Specific areas of interest include the stochasticity of gene expression, the cellular functions arising from signal transduction and gene regulatory networks, the dynamics of neural networks that underlie stereotypical behaviors such as birdsong, how sensory information is stored as memory, and the stability of mutualistic ecological communities. These problems can seldom be solved by purely reductionist methods and they call for creative and interdisciplinary approaches.

Faculty

Theory: Computational models for birdsong experiments; modeling of neural mechanisms by which high-level mem- ories are coded; biophysically realistic models of rhythm gen- eration, seizures, and Parkinson’s disease; prototype feedback control systems; molecular-level interaction networks among genes and proteins; complex systems; statics and dynamics of ecological communities. Réka Albert, John Collins, Dezhe Z Jin.

Experiment: Neural organization of complex motor sequences; neural activity in functioning neural circuits. Lu Bai.

Theory

Modeling of within-cell and cell-to cell interactions, systems biology.
Quantum field theory, Perturbation effects in QCD, Renormalization theory, Neuroscience.
Biological neural networks, brain-inspired artificial intelligence, birdsong, computational neuroscience, dynamical systems.

Experiment

Image
Lu Bai.

Lu Bai

 
 
Study of the properties of chromatin and its relation to gene expression.