Research
We are interested in problems of both Biological and Physical nature. We are fascinated by the self-organized emergence of life from inanimate objects. We want to understand what Physico-chemical principles guide it. More significantly, we want to find out what new principles emerge* as the guiding force of biological organization, so as to sustain life? Below are some of the research themes we are presently interested in.
Theoretical study of the growth logic of bacteria
Bacterial cell demonstrates dynamic growth response to various external conditions in which it grows. While plenty of interesting experimental data is available, theoretical understanding of these results is much limited. The recently developed autocatalytic network framework has proved to be extremely useful in obtaining a theoretical, mechanistic understanding of some of these experimental observations.
In this project, we aim to use and extend this framework to understand other diverse experimental observations on bacterial response in different environments.
A coarse-grained view of the microbial autocatalytic network
Thermodynamics of autocatalytic networks
The biochemical reactions giving rise to sensing, signal transduction, and biomass synthesis in living organisms have to satisfy thermodynamic constraints. In this project we aim to study how thermodynamic constraints influence bacterial physiology.
Statistical mechanics of autocatalytic networks
Most theoretical models of bacterial physiology, including the autocatalytic network model, are deterministic models. However, in many instances, the abundance of the biomolecules may become too small and number fluctuations may become important. In this project, we aim to study the influence of this stochasticity on biochemical networks and, thereby, on bacterial physiology.