L14: 14 Lectures past and 11 to go Part I: ‘The cell as a well-stirred bioreactor’ 1 topics - Lambda phage lysis-lysogeny switch - Synthetic genetic switch - Switches as memory storage - Chemotaxis: perfect adaptation or not? - Synthetic genetic oscillators main assumption - well-stirred reactor - absence of chemical gradients (justification: small cells, diffusion mixes) Switch from Systems Microbiology to Systems Cell Biology The importance of diffusion and gradients for cellular regulation 2 Part II: Systems Cell Biology ‘Importance of gradients and diffusion in cellular regulation’ 3 After two lectures on diffusion and reaction-diffusion equations, we will focus during the coming lectures on the following biological systems: 1. Eukaryotic chemotaxis Gradient sensing in Dictyostelium (aka‘amoeba’) 2. Computing the middle of a cell Pole-to-pole oscillations in Escherichia coli 3. Self organization of the cytoskeleton