Math Biology Seminar: The Min system in E.coli: A stochastic polymer model and new ideas for experiments

The Min system in E.coli -- a group of three interacting proteins playing a role in cell division -- has attracted a lot of attention by modellers, some claiming it to be the 'measurement stick' in the rod-shaped bacterium. Different models have been proposed to explain the observed dynamical patterns -- oscillations, standing and travelling waves. Here, we will focus on a simple polymerisation/depolymerisation model. The model provides an interesting example of a stochastic hybrid dynamical system and we use probabilistic maps to compute probability distributions of experimentally accessible quantities. As a step towards model discrimination I will report on experiments we conducted on GFP-labelled E.coli.