Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2010.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Youk, Hyun
Other Authors: Alexander van Oudenaarden.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62604
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author Youk, Hyun
author2 Alexander van Oudenaarden.
author_facet Alexander van Oudenaarden.
Youk, Hyun
author_sort Youk, Hyun
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description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2010.
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spelling mit-1721.1/626042019-04-12T21:36:53Z Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance Youk, Hyun Alexander van Oudenaarden. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. Physics. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2010. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. A persistent challenge in quantitatively modeling a biological system is that the system often involves many components and just as dizzying number of interactions among those components. To further complicate matters, the parameters that characterize those interactions and components, like the rates of chemical reactions and concentrations of molecules inside the cell, have evaded detection by the conventional experimental tools. How does one model a system whose crucial parameters are unknown? And even if we know all the parameters inside the cell, there is an increasing uneasiness among many researchers that just writing down an equation for every interaction and components of the system is not practical. Crucially, it is not clear that such an extensive many-parameter model would always enhance our understanding of the complex biological system. A phenomenological model that involves just a few essential, easily measurable parameters that capture the essence of the complex biological system may provide insights that a many-parameter, large scale model may not provide. In this thesis, we describe our attempts at obtaining such a model for two complex biological systems: 1.) Cell growth as a result of glucose metabolism, and 2.) in vitro maintenance of the embryonic stem cell's pluripotency by a complex transcriptional network. by Hyun Youk. Ph.D. 2011-05-09T13:59:31Z 2011-05-09T13:59:31Z 2010 2010 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62604 713659214 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 139 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Physics.
Youk, Hyun
Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance
title Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance
title_full Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance
title_fullStr Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance
title_full_unstemmed Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance
title_short Phenomenological models in biological physics : cell growth and pluripotency maintenance
title_sort phenomenological models in biological physics cell growth and pluripotency maintenance
topic Physics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62604
work_keys_str_mv AT youkhyun phenomenologicalmodelsinbiologicalphysicscellgrowthandpluripotencymaintenance