Math Biology Seminar: William Carlquist

The Min system in E. coli is one of the simplest known biological systems that demonstrates diverse complex dynamic behavior or transduces local interactions into a global signal. Various mathematical models of the Min system show behaviors that are qualitatively similar to dynamic behaviors of the Min system that have been observed in experiments, but no model has been quantitatively compared to time-course data. In this talk, I will discuss extracting time-course data for model fitting from experimental measurements of the Min system and fitting established and novel biochemistry-based models to the time-course data using a homotopy-minimization method for parameter estimation in differential equations. Comparing models to time-course data allows me to make precise distinctions between biochemical assumptions in the various models. I will discuss how my modeling and fitting supports a novel model, which suggests that a regular, ordered, stability-switching mechanism underlies the emergent, dynamic behavior of the Min system.