BIOMECHANICS, BIOENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY Seminar

PROGRAM

Plan rada Seminara iz Biomehanike, bioinžinjeringa i matematičke biologije za NOVEMBAR 2022.

Ponedeljak, 07.11.2022. u 16:00, Online
Shiling Liang, Laboratory of Statistical Biophysics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
NON-ISOTHERMAL CHEMICAL REACTION NETWORKS: HINTS TO THE ORIGINS OF LIFE
Life has most likely originated from non-equilibrium conditions. Before the formation of protocells, molecules needed to evolve step by step into self-replicating molecules, known as chemical evolution. This process is not likely to happen under an equilibrium condition, since the chemical evolution is from stable inorganic components to thermodynamically unstable biomolecules. While hydrothermal vents of the primitive earth might provide an ideal environment for the origin of life, in which a temperature gradient can act as a non-equilibrium-driven force to push chemical systems to thermodynamically unfavorable states. In this talk, I will first discuss how to describe the dynamics of chemical reaction systems in a thermodynamically consistent manner. Based on this framework, I will present a theory called dissipation-driven selection, which demonstrates how a non-isothermal driving force can push a reaction system to explore a richer chemical space that can be reached at thermodynamic equilibrium. In the end, I'll talk about an emergent theory of thermophoresis in which a concentration gradient is triggered by a temperature gradient as a direct consequence of reaction-diffusion dynamics.