SGER: Applying control engineering concepts for understanding biological regulation

本研究的目的是利用动力系统和反馈控制理论的工具来研究生物反馈调节机制的例子，并利用这些结果对这些系统在健康和疾病中的运作有新的认识。为了实现这一目标，PI试图识别服务于特定反馈控制角色的功能模块，确定这些模块的生理基础，并了解这些模块推广到其他调节系统和跨层次尺度的程度。这些问题是解决长期目标的关键，即开发一个统一的框架来分析稳态机制——一个以反馈控制理论概念和语言为中心，并考虑到已知生理学的框架。人们相信，基于反馈和鲁棒性的必要性对这些模块施加的功能约束，这样一个框架将有可能在理解涉及体内平衡的复杂生物和化学过程以及这些过程构成的功能模块方面取得新的进展。

0123496KhammashThe objective of the proposed research is to study examples of biological feedback regulation mechanisms using the tools of dynamical systems and feedback control theory, and to use the results to shed new understanding on the operation of these systems in health and disease. In achieving this objective, The PI seeks to identify functional modules that serve specific feedback control roles, to determine the physiological basis of these modules, and to understand the extent to which such modules generalize to other regulatory systems and across hierarchical scales. These questions are key in addressing the long-term objective to develop a unified framework for analyzing homeostatic mechanisms--one that is centered on feedback control theory concepts and language, and takes into account known physiology. It is believed that such a framework will make it possible to make new progress in the understanding of those complex biological and chemical processes involved in homeostasis and the functional modules that these processes constitute, based on the functional constraints that are imposed on these modules by the necessities of feedback and robustness.