ABSTRACT:
Biochemical networks transmit signals, perform computations, and drive behaviors in living cells. These networks must contend with the intrinsic fluctuations that accompany the reaction and diffusion of small numbers of molecules. In this talk, I will describe key spatiotemporal features that allow cells to modulate or enhance signaling in the face of these fluctuations. These features include how the nonuniform arrangement of enzymes can either reduce or enhance a signaling response depending on network structure and parameters, and how the transient partitioning of molecules on the cell membrane can make signaling more reliable by removing correlations. These findings support the intriguing idea that at the molecular level, space can be utilized as an important degree of freedom in signaling computations.