Einladung zum Vortrag im Kolloquium Technische Kybernetik

 Information-theoretic analysis of signal transduction pathways

Prof. Pablo A. Iglesias
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics & Statistics
The Johns Hopkins University · Baltimore · USA

    Zeit: Mittwoch 30.09. 2009 · 14:00 Uhr
    Ort: IST-Seminarraum 3.243 · Pfaffenwaldring 9 · Campus Stuttgart-Vaihingen

Abstract

Because of the presence of both intrinsic and extrinsic noise, cells must make decisions based on noisy information. A natural question arises – how efficient are cells in this process? Information theory was developed about 60 years by Claude Shannon as a means of evaluating the transmission of signals across noisy communication networks. In particular, I will use rate distortion theory, a branch of information theory, to determine optimal signal transduction strategies for cells based on imperfect information about their environment. In engineering, rate distortion theory provides the information processing capabilities required to achieve a desired accuracy. We will consider two broad classes of signaling problems. We first consider the problem of optimal gradient sensing in the chemotactic response of cells. In this case, cells sense an external field of chemoattractant and must make a decision as to which direction to move. In our second class of problems we consider the problem of making a binary decision. In this case, cells must choose between two decisions based on whether the concentration of an external signal is above or below a threshold.

Biographical Information

Pablo A. Iglesias was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He received the B.A.Sc . degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto in 1987, and the Ph.D. degree in Control Engineering from Cambridge University in 1991. Since then he has been on the faculty the Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also holds appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, and Applied Mathematics & Statistics. He has had visiting appointments at Lund University, The Weizmann Institute of Science, and the California Institute of Technology.

Professor Iglesias is the coauthor of the monograph /Minimum Entropy Control for Time-Varying Systems/, with Brian Ingalls, of the forthcoming /Control Theory and Systems Biology, /and numerous other technical publications. He received the Charles E. Ives Outstanding Paper Award from the Society for Imaging Technology in 1992 and the George E. Owen Teaching Award from Johns Hopkins in 1997. He was also a finalist in the 1990 IFAC World Congress Young Author Prize. He has served on the Editorial Boards of six journals in control theory and systems biology.

His current research interests focus on the use of control theory to study biological signal transduction pathways, particularly those involved in regulating chemotaxis and cytokinesis.