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Updated: Aug 1, 2026

Fine-tuning the Size and Minimizing the Noise of Solid-state Nanopores
Published on: October 31, 2013
It's a noisy business! Genetic regulation at the nanomolar scale
1Department of Developmental Biology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA. mcadams@cmgm.stanford.edu
Abstract:
Many molecules that control genetic regulatory circuits act at extremely low intracellular concentrations. Resultant fluctuations (noise) in reaction rates cause large random variation in rates of development, morphology and the instantaneous concentration of each molecular species in each cell. To achieve regulatory reliability in spite of this noise, cells use redundancy in genes as well as redundancy and extensive feedback in regulatory pathways. However, some regulatory mechanisms exploit this noise to randomize outcomes where variability is advantageous.
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