Biological Information Processing

Research Strategy

The main aim of our research is to analyze how living systems take up, process, store, and transfer information. To achieve this aim, we are active in different areas. First, we are building (kinetic) models of biological systems, for instance, models that describe how oscillations in the second messenger Ca2+ arise, how they are modulated, and how these dynamics lead to specific regulation of different downstream calcium-dependent proteins. We investigate how reliable these systems are by explicitly considering intrinsic fluctuations in particle numbers and utilizing stochastic simulation methods.

Second, we adapt and apply ideas from information theory and AI/machine learning to address biological research questions. For instance, we study how biological memory is employed in E. coli chemotaxis or the adaptive immune system, and how this effects the functioning of these systems. Third, we are working on method development. This includes extending the widely-used software COPASI for the modelling and simulation of biochemical systems as part of the COPASI developer team, or the development of packages for the R programming environment that allows users to set up systems biology workflows, such as CoRC.