Seminar - How do single-celled organisms cope with changes in their environment?

18th September 2025 11:30 CEST

Speaker

Bob Planque (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Abstract

Single-celled organisms display remarkable flexibility in how they make a living. By reconfiguring their metabolic networks, they can adapt to changing environments and maintain growth under diverse conditions. Yet this adaptability comes with constraints: biosynthetic resources are limited, so microbes must allocate them economically across competing demands. In this talk, I will present an overview of our contributions to this field. It involves a combination of tools from linear and nonlinear programming, convex analysis, dynamical systems, and control theory. I will try to convince you that despite the enormous complexity of cells’ inner workings, there is enough structure to make analytical progress and to develop a deep understanding how cells are able to navigate their ever-changing world.

Contact person: Andrea Pugliese.

Where

Aula Seminari, Department of Mathematics