Section: New Results

Control of regulatory networks in bacteria

While systems biology is primarily concerned with natural systems shaped by evolution, synthetic biology opens up a new generation of fundamental research by trying to redesign natural systems or create novel systems from scratch. Mathematical modeling and analysis are essential components of synthetic biology, as they help understanding the consequences of (changes in) the network of interactions on the dynamical behavior of the system. More specifically, a model can be a powerful tool for the control and regulation of the system towards a desired goal.

Within the projects ColAge and GeMCo (Section  6.1 ), we attempt to control one of the fundamental physiological properties of bacterial cells, their growth rate. In particular, in order to control the growth rate, we propose to focus on the gene expression machinery of E. coli, whose activity is controlled by a complex regulatory network with many components and intertwined feedback loops. Delphine Ropers is developing models of the gene expression machinery and Jérome Izard, in the context of his PhD thesis, is rewiring part of the network to enable control of the network dynamics. The results on these projects are currently being prepared for publication.