SynBiol-DynHet · Diversity in Synthetic Biological Systems
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-09-01 → 2017-08-31
- EU contribution
- €159,461
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Diversity in Synthetic Biological Systems
We address the impact of diversity in synthetic biological models. We focused on the impact of length and time scales in these systems, concerning two separate aspects: First, microbial systems can be used as model systems for ecological questions, concerning, for example, the interactions or geometries which can support biodiversity or cooperative behaviour in ecological populations. Such populations are structured such that different types of interactions happen on different length and time scales (eg within smaller habitats, or with time delays). Such structured habitats occur increasingly in the environment, for example due to climate change. Microbial model systems provide a toolbox where the impact of specific inter-species interactions or geometries can be investigated by engineering well-defined and tunable experimental conditions. We address these interactions and geometries theoretically, in order to potentially guide experiments towards systems where biodiversity or cooperation may be particularly threatened, or well-established. In doing so, we draw from and develop methods of statistical physics, as these methods can elucidate what types of behaviours among interactive species may be more general. Second, microbial systems themselves need to be better understood, so that one can, for example, improve drug treatments when these species occur during an infection. This is particularly important in the face of the growing threat of increasing antibiotic resistance. In addition to resistance, bacteria can also become tolerant towards an antibiotic drug via a phenotypic switch. It is important to understand what types of antibiotic drug treatments may be able reduce the pressure of the species to become resistant or tolerant. In experimental systems, the impact of different types of drug treatments on a small, controllable set of species can be investigated. Thus, the theoretical work performed in the course of this project addresses the impact of temporal antibiotic gradients on a bacterial population of two species, where we assumed one species to be more tolerant to the antibiotics.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
One key problem in the investigation of living systems is their complexity. Synthetic biologists can create artificially designed biological systems, whose design reduces the complexity, and can thus address simplified and specific questions. Theoretical investigations of these systems help to understand these questions, for example by evaluating whether a simple model already predicts the features shown in experiments.This proposal provides a step towards understanding living systems by theoretically studying diversity in microbial populations. The aim is to investigate both spatial diversity, such as barriers, as well as agents with different traits within a population. This will be done with the goal of answering important ecological as well as microbiological questions. In terms of the ecology, this work will address how spatial barriers, or the presence of diverse agents, can influence the formation of biodiversity and cooperation. In its engagement with microbiology, it will investigate a microbial population's reactions to randomly distributed antibiotic drugs, and the ability to tolerate these antibiotics. With the development of new experimental procedures that allow closer investigations of both these issues, an improvedtheoretical description is now required alongside such advances.I will investigate all questions in close collaboration with synthetic biology experiments. This project will allow me to combine my background in the theory of condensed matter and chemistry to work on living systems research, before obtaining an independent researcher position in the field of biological physics.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · PlaneggCoordinatorGermany
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union