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Real-Time Proxy-Control of Re-Parameterized Peripheral Signals using a Close-Loop Interface
Published on: May 8, 2021
External stimuli mediate collective rhythms: artificial control strategies.
Tianshou Zhou1, Jiajun Zhang, Zhanjiang Yuan
1School of Mathematics and Computational Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. mcszhtsh@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Plos One
|February 22, 2007
Summary
Researchers developed artificial control strategies to manage collective biological rhythms in multicellular structures. External periodic signals can induce or enhance these rhythms when synchronized with intrinsic cellular periods, offering potential for medical therapies.
Area of Science:
- Systems Biology
- Synthetic Biology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Biological rhythms are fundamental to multicellular life.
- Artificial control of these rhythms presents a significant scientific challenge.
- Understanding the interplay between external stimuli and intrinsic rhythms is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and analyze artificial control strategies for mediating collective rhythms in multicellular structures.
- To investigate the mechanisms by which external periodic stimuli influence these collective behaviors.
- To explore the potential applications in sensing external signals and developing medical therapies.
Main Methods:
- Development of two models based on noisy repressilators with periodic external control.
- Model 1: Information exchange among cells via freely diffusing signaling molecules.
- Model 2: Directional diffusion of signaling molecules into individual cells from a common environment.
Main Results:
- Identified physical mechanisms governing the induction, enhancement, or disruption of collective rhythms by external stimuli.
- Demonstrated that collective behaviors are induced/enhanced only when the extrinsic period is an integer multiple of the averaged intrinsic period.
- Showed that mismatched periods can lead to the disruption of achieved collective behaviors.
Conclusions:
- The entrainment properties of biological oscillators to external signals can be exploited by living cells.
- Provides novel insights into the interaction between extrinsic stimuli and intrinsic physiological rhythms.
- Suggests potential for developing new medical therapies or devices based on controlled biological rhythms.
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