Workshop on Cellular Computation and Decision Making, October 5-8, 1997, Santa Fe, New Mexico

研讨会将汇集两个领域的概念和方法——分子生物学和理论计算机科学——来研究细胞中的分子计算/决策网络。重点将是分子网络在少数的充分分析微生物系统。所有这些网络都是由多个相互作用的代理组成的计算网络的类似物，我们现在有强大的实验工具来研究构成其节点的分子的性质。现在需要的是描述和分析集成行为的形式化方法。这个想法是使用在微生物中发现的真实网络来推导具有预测能力的正式模型/表示。反过来，这些预测可以通过返回微生物来验证。真正的创造性建模需要理论计算机科学中的新概念。基于实际微生物系统的起源和测试将确保理论结果与实际现象紧密联系。因此，研讨会的目标是开始将我们的分子知识转化为对这些网络如何运作的计算机理论理解。例如，我们需要确定如何表示与多个配体相互作用的蛋白质的模拟处理能力，我们需要找到将实验确定的分子性质（如结合常数和催化常数）转换为计算算法组件的最佳词汇表。要做到这一点，就需要对少数实际案例进行激烈的集体讨论，这些案例涉及生物学和计算学等许多观点的代表。讲习班的成果应应用于生物技术，例如代谢工程领域。

Shapiro 9724164 The workshop will bring together the concepts and approaches of two fields--molecular biology and theoretical computer science--for the study of molecular computing/decision-making networks in cells. The focus will be on molecular networks in a small number of well-analyzed microbial systems. All of these networks are analogues of computing networks formed by multiple interacting agents, and we now have powerful experimental tools to investigate the properties of the molecules which constitute their nodes. What is needed now are formal methods for describing and analyzing the behavior of the ensembles. The idea is to use the real networks that are found in microbes to derive formal models/representations with predictive powers. The predictions, in turn, can be tested by returning to the microbes. Truly creative modeling will require new concepts in theoretical computer science. The genesis and testing based on actual microbial systems will ensure that the theoretical results are firmly tied to real phenomena. The goal of the workshop therefore is to begin converting our molecular knowledge into computer theoretic understanding of how these networks function. For example, we need to determine how to represent the analog processing capabilities of proteins that interact with multiple ligands, and we need to find the best vocabulary for translating experimentally-determined molecular properties, such as binding and catalytic constants, into components of computational algorithms. To do so will require intense collective discussions of a small number of real cases involving representatives of many perspectives, both biological and computational. The results of the workshop should have applications to biotechnology, for example in the area of metabolic engineering.