Research Topics

Brief Description

1. Quantitative models of cell signal transduction processes.

Cells respond to external signals by means of specific transduction pathways that are activated by receptors located at the cell membrane. These signals are transmitted by the transport of molecules usually by diffusion through the cytoplasm following certain pathways. The spatial and temporal organization of molecules within a cell is critical for coordinating the many different activities carried out by the cell. These signal pathways not only transmit but also process, codify, and integrate both, internal and external signals. It has been found that different spatio-temporal activation profiles corresponding to the same protein kind yield different genetic expression patterns as well as different physiological responses. These observations strongly suggest that the decisions that yield different relevant processes in the cell, such as surviving, proliferation, differentiation, as well as apoptosis, depend crucially on the precise temporal control and spatial distribution of the signal transducers. Our goal is to investigate the dynamics of cell signal transduction by means of quantitative models inspired on experimental observations. The quantitative models usually consist of reaction-diffusion systems of equations and or molecular simulations.

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