Detail

The bioinformatics of modular biological systems

Biological systems are intrinsically modular in the sense that “function” is achieved by the cooperative work of sets of molecules, separated in time and/or space from other “functions”. These are termed functional modules. This is the same concept of modularity found in modular and object-oriented programming, in the modular design of engineered systems, etc. In cell biology this is apparent in our own conceptualization of biological function into protein complexes, signaling and metabolic pathways, organelles, etc. We know the identity of only some of these entities, and understand how their cooperative action achieves function for an even smaller number. The realization of the modular nature of cell biology poses thus a variety of challenges for which we need new approaches, in particular we need new computational (bioinformatic) methods aimed at identifying the modules, their interactions as well as the mechanistic details of module function . In my talk I will discuss the notion of modularity in cell biology, from protein structure to networks, with emphasis on their evolution – the focus of the computational genomics laboratory at the IGC.