[This is the old program from WS 2009/10. The current program and contact information can be found here.]

25 September 2009, 16:00

Arik Yochelis (Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel)
Towards Biochemical Control of Physiological Self-Organization 

Abstract:
Self-organization of patterns is fundamental to normal and pathological processes in physiology, examples include signal propagation in neurons, angiogenesis, morphogenesis, cancer, and cardiac arrhythmia. However, although the molecular and genetic properties acting at microscopic scales are often suggestive, it is hard to deduce the macroscopic mechanisms, which operate at tissue levels.
The aim of my talk is to promote and demonstrate the significance of a nonlinear activator-inhibitor (morphogenetic fields) approach in physiological sciences. The advantage of such approach is in the potential biochemical robust control of various pathological phenomena. As a support, I will present how mathematical analysis promoted novel in vitro stem cells based experiments which considered as central to the notorious vascular calcification phenomenon (atherosclerosis) [1]. I will also show the significance of an activator-inhibitor approach in the context of lung development. In particular, the latter provides a plausible mechanistic explanation for the specific lack of side branching in the transgenic mouse, and strengthens the claim that morphogen dynamics play an important role in the morphogenesis of branched structures [2].
[1] A. Yochelis, Y. Tintut, L. L. Demer, and A. Garfinkel, The formation of labyrinths, spots and stripe patterns in a biochemical approach to cardiovascular calcification, New J. Phys. 10, 055002 (2008).
[2] Y. Yao, S. Nowak, A. Yochelis, A. Garfinkel, and K. Bostrom, Matrix GLA protein, an inhibitory morphogen in pulmonary vascular development, J. Biol. Chem. 282, 30131 (2007).

23 October 2009, 16:00

Takao Ohta (Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Japan)
Dynamics of deformable self-propelled particles [Abstract] 

30 October 2009, 16:00

Fred Wolf (Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen)
Universality and self-organization in the evolution of the visual cortex [Abstract] 

06 November 2009, 16:00

Yasuaki Kobayashi (Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft)
Design of multi-cluster and desynchronized states in oscillatory media by nonlinear global feedback [Abstract] 

08 January 2010, 16:00

Rudolf Friedrich (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
Ratchet effect and the inverse cascade of turbulence [Abstract] CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS!

12 February 2010, 16:00

Ulrich Parlitz (Drittes Physikalisches Institut, Universität Göttingen)
Nonlinear modeling and data analysis [Abstract]