Evolution of Reliable and Robust Regulatory Control

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Organisms are designed to be reliable and to deal robustly with unexpected changes in the environment. Like machines designed by engineers, the reliability and robustness of organisms is far from perfect. In engineering terms, machines that last a very long time and handle a wide variety of unexpected situations are very expensive and often poorly suited to their tasks - thus, engineers design with both costs and benefits in mind. This project examines the same sorts of design tradeoffs in biological terms. For example, how have organisms been designed with regard to reliability and robustness? How have the tradeoffs between costs and benefits been resolved in biological design? This work will study biological examples of breakdown and repair from these design perspectives. The methods include mathematical and computer models to study the problems of biological design coupled with synthesis of real-life examples of breakdown, such as cancer, aging, and, molecularly, the smaller-scale components that make organisms work. These studies will result in improved understanding of biological reliability and robustness. That understanding will have broader impacts by providing insight into when and why breakdown occurs - the fundamental basis of disease and aging.