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ICGEB, Trieste
SNS, Pisa

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Strasbourg

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In recent years, the increasing use of modelling to capture biological complexity has revealed two complementary approaches. One is to build ever more comprehensive models in the hope that they will l...

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Measuring variability

HFSP J. Volume 1, Issue 3, pp. 147-151 (September 2007)

Published 20 September 2007
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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords
PACS
  • 87.15.By
    Structure and bonding of biomolecules
  • 87.15.He
    Biomolecular dynamics and conformational changes
  • 87.15.Kg
    Biomolecular interactions; membrane-protein interactions
  • 87.80.-y
    Biological techniques and instrumentation; biomedical engineering
  • 87.16.-b
    Subcellular structure and processes
  • 87.15.Rn
    Biochemical reactions and kinetics; polymerization
  • YEAR: 2007

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:
1955-2068 (print)   1955-205X (online)
Publisher:
AIP is a member of CrossRef HFSP
Marcelo Magnasco1
1Center for Studies in Physics and Biology, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021, U.S.A.
Gene expression is a noisy stochastic process, since it involves at its core interactions between single molecules: a polymerase and a binding site. However, many biological processes directly dependent upon gene expression are reliable. Prominent among them is morphogenesis: how are body parts so consistently generated and proportioned? In the early embryo, gradients of certain proteins called morphogens affect the pattern of cell differentiation and embryonic development. The variability in morphogen patterns and its effect in the proportions of the embryo has been intriguing biologists for a long time, but the limitations, variability and limited reproducibility of immunostaining of fixed embryos does not allow dynamic measurements. New tools now allow precise measurement of the variability of morphogen patterning in living Drosophila embryos, making it possible to probe the underlying mechanisms of development. ©2007 HFSP Publishing
History: Received 24 August 2007; accepted 24 August 2007; published 20 September 2007
Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.2976/1.2784546

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