Coupled Excitable Systems: How Cells Migrate (Pablo A. Iglesias)

PLENARY PRESENTATION
Coupled Excitable Systems: How Cells Migrate
Pablo A. Iglesias
Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
Abstract: The study of excitable systems, which arose from a desire to understand the behavior of neurons, has a rich theoretical history. When excitable systems exist in diffusible media, the activity of the system can propagate as a traveling wave. In the last decade, there have been numerous reports that many of the molecular regulators of cell migration cells display wave propagation consistent with the existence of an underlying excitable system. In this talk I will present a comprehensive model for cell migration that explains cell movement in terms of excitable behavior. The presence of an excitable system accounts for the spontaneous migration of unstimulated cells and the directed migration of cells guided by external cues. No prior knowledge of the biology will be assumed.
Bio: Pablo Iglesias is the Edward J. Shaefer Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He got his PhD from Cambridge University in 1991 and his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1987. His research focuses on the use of control and information theory to study biological signal transduction pathways. Among his research interests are: understanding how cells interpret directional cues to guide cell motion, the regulatory mechanisms that control cell division, and the sensing and actuation that enable cells to maintain lipid homeostasis.