Physics of Membranes and their Interactions (Lecture 1) by Ana-Suncana Smith

PROGRAM

STATISTICAL BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS: FROM SINGLE MOLECULE TO CELL

ORGANIZERS: Debashish Chowdhury (IIT-Kanpur, India), Ambarish Kunwar (IIT-Bombay, India) and Prabal K Maiti (IISc, India)
DATE: 11 October 2022 to 22 October 2022
VENUE: Ramanujan Lecture Hall

'Fluctuation-and-noise' are themes that are common in the study of living systems, starting from molecular and cellular levels to higher levels of biological organization. Interestingly, instead of suppressing or filtering out the noise, a cell often exploits it to drive many of its intracellular and extracellular processes. Some of these noise-exploiting processes are essential for the survival of the cell, while some others occur in anticipation, essentially to enable the cell to overcome adverse conditions in future. Not surprisingly, concepts and techniques of statistical physics, particularly those drawn from stochastic thermodynamics, kinetics, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics, have been used very effectively in recent decades, to unveil many mysteries of stochastic processes that are associated with 'life'.

The ICTS program 'Statistical Biological Physics: From Single Molecule to Cell' intends to bring statistical physicists, molecular cell biologists, system biologists, physical chemists and mathematical biologists, to an interdisciplinary meeting focussing on the common theme of 'fluctuations-and-noise' in stochastic biological processes. The common conceptual themes and theoretical techniques (both mathematical and computational) and their applications to subcellular and cellular phenomena will be presented by leading theorists. The successes and limitations of the new powerful experimental techniques developed over the last few years for probing these phenomena and the current technical challenges, will be discussed by renowned experimentalists.

This program will provide a platform for theorists and experimentalists to exchange ideas, thereby enriching science across disciplinary boundaries. Participation of emerging scientists (mostly senior Ph.D. students and postdocs) will benefit from the program as it will deepen their knowledge and insights, both in terms of methods and applications, at the interface of statistical physics and biology.

ICTS is committed to building an environment that is inclusive, non discriminatory and welcoming of diverse individuals. We especially encourage the participation of women and other under-represented groups.

CONTACT US: [email protected]

PROGRAM LINK: https://www.icts.res.in/program/sbp2022