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Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences - Faculty
Terence Hwa
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Ph.D., Physics
Professor of Physics
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Research Areas
Statistical Biophysics; systems of high microscopic degrees of freedom
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Current activities in our lab are in the area of quantitative and systemic biology. This is an emerging area of research at the interface of biology, biochemistry, engineering, and physics.
Our research is focused on microbiology, particularly on the bacterium E. coli which is the best characterized living organism both molecularly and physiologically. In the long run, we wish to develop a comprehensive understanding of the organism, i.e., understanding its physiological response under various growth conditions in molecular terms. However even for E. coli, a global approach seems premature in our opinion due to the many missing molecular players and interactions. Thus, we work on smaller sub-systems, with the insistence on developing quantitative links from molecules all the way to cell physiology. Our emphasis can be regarded as the "vertical approach", which complements the "horizontal approach" favored by the 'omics technology. An introduction to our vertical, quantitative approach is described in a recent course on quantitative molecular biology developed by our laboratory.
Our experiments are often theory-motivated, yet discoveries made in the lab has inspired fresh theoretical view points. In similar ways, our theoretical studies play the dual role of analyzing experimental results and guiding new generation of experiments.
Below are some topics our lab has been working in recent years; all projects involve experimental and theoretical components.
* gene regulation: quantitative characterization of combinatorial transcriptional control; de novo synthesis of novel transcriptional control; quantitative characterization of post-transcriptional control by regulatory small RNA;
* protein-protein interaction: specificity and cross-talk in two-component signaling; assembly of macromolecular complexes;
* molecular evolution: directed evolution of promoters, cis-regulatory sequences, and signaling molecules; analysis of evolved sequences to deduce rules of molecular interaction;
* genetic circuits: quantitative characterization of various endogenous genetic circuits; synthesis and characterization of artificial circuits;
* metabolic control: interaction and coordination of metabolic pathways; systems being studied include carbon/nitrogen metabolism, aerobic/anarobic control, Fe/oxidative stress;
* physiology & cell growth: coordination of growth and metabolic activities; control of ribosome synthesis and cell growth; control of cell division;
For more information, visit http://matisse.ucsd.edu
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Selected Recent Publications
E. Levine, Z. Zhang, T. Kuhlman, and T. Hwa, "Quantitative characteristics of gene regulation mediated by small RNA," PLoS. Biol. 5, e229 (2007).
E. Levine, and T. Hwa, "Stochastic Fluctuations in Metabolic Pathways," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 9244-9249 (2007).
N. E. Buchler, U. Gerland, and T. Hwa, "On schemes of combinatorial transcription control," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100,
5136-5141 (2003).
U. Gerland, J. D. Moroz, and T. Hwa, "Physical constraints and functional characteristics of transcription factor-DNA interaction," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99, 12015-12020 (2002).
For a full publication list, please visit: http://matisse.ucsd.edu/~hwa/pub/
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