SYSTEMS MICROBIOLOGY

Microbes detect and respond to a variety of environmental signals. Despite lacking a nervous system, microorganisms sense, compute and store information on their external world. Using a combination of computational and experimental approaches, we study how sensory systems evolve, and how memory and learning are implemented in single cells. Our specific lines of research include: - Information Theory and Cellular Sensing- We study computationally and experimentally how information is conveyed through signal transduction pathways, and the constrains on the channel capacity of cellular receptors. - Distributed perception through metabolomic sensing- We study how cyanobacterial infer and compute environmental changes from perturbations in their internal metabolome. - Mechanisms for cellular memory and learning- We study how cells build up memory on past events, and how these memory circuits can implement rudimentary forms of cellular learning.