Mathematics of Life Seminar Series: Randomness, Complexity, and the Biological Frontier

Pankaj Mehta argues that one possible strategy for taming biological complexity is to embrace the idea that many biological behaviors we observe are “typical” and can be modeled using random systems that respect biologically-inspired constraints. He focuses on showing how this approach can be used to make close connection with experiments by presenting three vignettes focusing on: theory-inspired techniques for visualizing single-cell transcriptomics data for cellular identity, understanding how the interplay between cross-feeding and competition shapes microbial ecosystems, and the emergence of chaos in the ecosystems with non-reciprocal interaction.