Complex molecules found in nature are the results of chemical reactions in biological systems, i.e. living systems. But what is the maximum complexity that can be found abiotically without the use of a biological system and is there a limit to the complexity that biological systems can produce (or humans can understand)?
Information and Noise:
Chemistry, Biology and Evolution
Creating Complex Systems
Beilstein Bozen Symposium 2018
5 – 7 June 2018
Hotel Jagdschloss Niederwald, Rüdesheim, Germany
Scientific Committee:
Lee Cronin / University of Glasgow, UK
Tim Clark / University of Nürnberg-Erlangen
Martin G. Hicks, Carsten Kettner / Beilstein-Institut
Aspects covered by this conference
Is the chemical variation of life on earth the most robust form potentially evolvable, or just robust enough?
Is it efficient to mimic biological synthesis pathways by means from the organic chemistry toolbox?
Information and Noise:
Chemistry, Biology and Evolution
Creating Complex Systems
When do chemical systems become biological ones? What needs to happen for molecules behaving stochastically to join in networks and cooperate to produce non-random or directed chemical pathways? Biological systems consist of networks of interacting molecules over a large number of time and length scales, and with error tolerance: The larger and more organized the molecules, the more they behave cooperatively. The evolution of biological systems results in interconnected networks optimized for robustness. Such systems are often not the optimal solution, but rather an adjacent one, stable to perturbations. Indeed, before the first genetically regulated ones, such systems had to self-encode into a replicating system. What mechanism led to self-encoding chemistry and was this the seed for biological evolution? This question is perhaps the most important. Finding the first system that is able to evolve is a big challenge.
The first evolving systems started without all the error-correction mechanisms of biology, and chemical reactions do not proceed with 100% yield; they are inherently noisy. Sometimes the reaction produces byproducts, other times, small changes in the conditions lead to changes in products.
Biological systems are also noisy. Noise can be described in terms of apparently undirected activity such as Brownian molecular movement in cells, or even in terms of unspecific, promiscuous enzyme catalysis of chemical reactions involving unusual or uncommon substrates. Information transfer in networks can be facilitated by noise. What is the nature and meaning of the information that we are transferring in chemical and biochemical reactions and what types of noise play a role in signaling and information transfer in biological systems?
Complex molecules found in nature are the results of chemical reactions in biological systems, i.e. living systems. But what is the maximum complexity that can be found abiotically without the use of a biological system and is there a limit to the complexity that biological systems can produce (or humans can understand)? Is the chemical variation of life on earth the most robust form potentially evolvable, or just robust enough? Is it efficient to mimic biological synthesis pathways by means from the organic chemistry toolbox?
Scientific Program
Tuesday, 5 June
9.00
Opening
Session Chair: Lara K. Mahal
9.20
Information / Matter Interplay Conceals Life's Universal Laws
Antoine Danchin, Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition, Paris, France
10.00
Macromolecular Crowding is an Important Organizing Principle for Chemical Catalysis Inside Biomolecular Condensates
Santiago Schnell, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
10.40
Oral Poster Session #1
11.00
Coffee Break
11.20
Exploring Transitions in Chemical Complexity
Lee Cronin, University of Glasgow, UK
12.00
Copying vs Self-assembly: What's the Fundamental Difference?
Thomas Ouldridge, Imperial College London, UK
12.40
Lunch
Session Chair: Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo
13.50
Fundamental Limits on the Thermodynamic Costs of Circuits
David Wolpert, Santa Fe Institute, USA
14.30
Semantic Closure Demonstrated by the Evolution of an Universal Constructor Architecture in an Artificial Chemistry
Susan Stepney, University of York, UK
15.10
Oral Poster Session #2
15.30
Tea Break
15.50
Exploring the Diversity and Complexity of Glycans in Nature: Not for the Faint-Hearted
Ajit Varki ,University of California, San Diego, USA
16.30
How do proteins encode their folded structures? And, how might the folding code have begun?
Ken A. Dill, Stony Brook University, New York, USA
17.10
Break
17.20
Poster Session
19.30
Dinner
Wednesday, 6 June
Session Chair: Susan Stepney
9.00
Fitness Landscapes of an RNA World
Irene Chen, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
9.40
Synthetic Genetics: beyond DNA and RNA
Philipp Holliger,MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
10.20
A miRNA-based Approach towards Cracking the Glycocode
Lara K. Mahal, New York University, USA
11.00
Coffee Break
11.20
In Through the Out Door – Creating Responsive, Dynamic Networks Using Synthetic Replicators
Doug Philp, University of St. Andrews, UK
12.00
Natural Heterotic Computing: ROS-driven Evolution of Environmental Bacteria
Victor de Lorenzo, Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, Madrid, Spain
12.40
Lunch
14.00
Excursion
19.30
Dinner
Thursday, 7 June
Session Chair: Wilhelm Boland
9.00
Origin and Effects of ‘White Noise’ in Cellular Networks
Stefan T. Arold, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
9.40
G-Protein Coupled Receptors Signaling: Noisy Biological Channels?
Tim Clark, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
10.20
Coffee Break
10.40
Determinism and Contingency Shape Metabolic Innovation During Symbiogenesis
Juli Peretó, Universitat de Valencia, Paterna, Spain
11.20
Systems Biology of Eukaryotic Superorganisms: a Pan-holistic Perspective
Ulrich Kutschera, University of Kassel, Germany
12.00
Lunch
13.30
Creating Evolutionary Feedback Loops
Andrew Ellington, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
14.10
Morphisms of Reaction Networks
Luca Cardelli, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK
14.50
Tea Break
15.10
Noise-induced Effects in the Dynamics of Gene Regulatory Networks in Single Cells and Tissues
Ramon Grima, University of Edinburgh, UK
15.50
'Information' as a Principle of Organization for Biology: Reinterpreting the Concept to Understand the Complexity of Living Organisms and their Evolutionary Potential.
Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain
16.30
Closing remarks
19.30
Dinner
Photo Gallery
