Danish Ph.D. School in Nonlinear Science

Sponsored by the Danish Research Agency

Research area: NONLINEAR DYNAMIC MODELS OF BIOLOGICAL CELLS AND CELL COMMUNITIES

This area combines nonlinear dynamics with another field of national expertise and scientific potential: cell biology, pharmacology and medicine. Nonlinear dynamic methods will be used to model and analyze metabolic processes in the individual cell (e.g. glycolysis and gluconeogenesis), cell-to-cell signaling in cell communities (e.g. -cells in the pancreas or bacterial cells in biofilms), and the processes involved in the growth of biomass in large scale fermentation reactors.

The aim of the effort is to contribute towards a clarification of a variety of highly nonlinear biological phenomena, centered around the problems of interest to Novo-Nordisk, Haldor Topsø and other Danish biotechnological industries. This will include model studies of the changes in the cellular metabolic processes involved in certain diseases, studies of the role that cellular interactions play in adjusting the functions of the individual cell and, hence, in controlling the activity of groups of cells, studies of the mechanisms involved in cell differentiation in connection with the growth of biofilms, and studies of a variety of fundamental problems related to the industrial applications of biotechnological processes, such as upscaling, biomass estimates, genetic stability, metabolic bottlenecks, and reactor control and stability.