Conteúdo do estágio II

Formulário de Submissão de Propostas
Programa de Estágios do IST - 2015
Responsável pelo estágio:
Francisco Pinto
[email protected]
Grupo de investigação / Empresa):
BioISI/FCUL
Área de investigação / projeto de investigação:
Probabilistic and Optimality Criteria in the Implementation of Cellular Regulatory
Mechanisms
Breve descrição do projecto a realizar pelo aluno:
Cells have to accomplish a multitude of tasks to survive environmental challenges and
complete the cell cycle in order to generate two new cells. To cope with this
multitasking scenario, cells evolved diverse regulatory mechanisms. In particular, to
regulate the activity of proteins, the cell major workforce, there are multiple possible
regulation points along the processes necessary to produce and degrade a protein.
Is the regulation of transcription equally effective as the regulation of mRNA stability
or protein degradation? Is there any advantage in combining multiple regulatory
interactions controlling the expression of the same protein? Why do we observe some
mechanisms more frequently than others in natural systems?
The reason why some regulatory mechanisms can be evolutionarily preferred can be
due to differences in the performance levels obtained by alternative mechanisms.
Núcleo de Engenharia
Biológica do Instituto
Superior Técnico
www.neb.ist.utl.pt
NEB IST
Av. Rovisco Pais, 1
IST Campus Alameda
Torre Sul
1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Email: [email protected]
On the other hand, natural selection does not compare the performance of all the
alternative regulatory mechanisms simultaneously. The alternative systems at one
point in time are dependent on the history of past selection and sequence
diversification events. Additionally, some of the alternative regulatory mechanisms
can be more reachable than others depending on the mechanisms of sequence
diversity generation and the kind of molecular interactions needed. Consequently, the
correct answer to the formulated questions is not complete without a further test:
which of the regulatory mechanisms are evolutionarily feasible, meaning they have a
good probability of being implemented in evolving organisms and then participate in
the natural selection filter. Their success may be due to their optimal performance, to
higher probabilities of evolutionary implementation or to a combination of both
factors.
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This research proposal will address these questions by developing controlled
computational experiments to analyze a) the dynamical behavior of alternative
regulatory mechanisms in response to various environmental challenges and b) the
evolution of competing regulatory mechanisms in populations of individuals under
defined selective pressures.
Duração:
3 semanas, 1 a 23 de Julho
Possibilidade de financiamento:
Não disponível
Cursos-alvo:
Engenharia Biológica, Engenharia Química, Engenharia Mecânica, Engenharia Física e
Tecnológica, Engenharia Electrotécnica, Engenharia Informática e de Computadores
Requisitos do candidato:
Conhecimentos de programação em Matlab ou em Python
Núcleo de Engenharia
Biológica do Instituto
Superior Técnico
www.neb.ist.utl.pt
NEB IST
Av. Rovisco Pais, 1
IST Campus Alameda
Torre Sul
1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Email: [email protected]
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