Mathematics and its Applications Seminar
Hassan Fathallah
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Model of the Circadian Clock: Loop Regulation and Transcriptional Integration
Abstract: Humans, like most animals and plants, have a biological clock that
controls circadian rhythms that affect timing of sleep, alertness,
and appetite. Circadian clocks consist of networks of molecules that
oscillate with a 24-hr period. The circadian clock of the fruit fly
poses an interesting problem that lowering the activity of a key
transcriptional repressor leads paradoxically to greater repression.
I will review the molecular network of the clock and introduce a
new system of equations to model molecular networks, then derive an
equation for integrating transcriptional signals. The results reveal
that loop regulation and transcriptional integration are central
mechanisms in time-keeping.
Wednesday September 30, 2009 at 4:00 PM in SEO 636