CHESS Seminar Series 2021/22: Keith Lindsey (Durham University)

Title: Systems Biology - what it tells us about how organisms work and evolve

Abstract: Multicellular organisms (principally plants and animals) represent the more obvious forms of life on earth, because of their size and abundance. Their multicellular nature endows them with a level of structural complexity that allows them to develop three-dimensional forms to exploit diverse ecological niches in ways that single-celled organisms such as bacteria cannot. The plants and animals themselves have diverged, hundreds of millions of years ago, in the way they construct multicellularity, and the growth strategies are the product of complex interactions between thousands of genes expressed in thousands or millions of cells, often (especially in the case of plants) in response to a plethora of environmental signals. This complexity requires a systems approach to thinking about developmental biology, which is different to the more traditional reductionist approach; but presents practical difficulties of how to investigate and present emergent properties from such complex interactions. I will discuss some of these questions with a particular reference to our research on plant developmental biology and genetics.

Join Zoom Meeting: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/99671451232?pwd=b2pnbGpUbnZSMkM3WXJRWlJSL2xPUT09

Meeting ID: 996 7145 1232
Passcode: chess

All welcome – please contact the Centre Administrator at admin.chess@durham.ac.uk to confirm attendance