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Canalizing biological self-organization with physical constraints
Modern imaging and genetic engineering allow for unprecedented access into the dynamics of biological self-organization, yet understanding how spatial organization emerges robustly remains challenging in these noisy, nonlinear living systems. I will present experimental and theoretical results highlighting how (long-range) physical constraints can explain the stability of emergent patterns.
On the experimental front, we study the emergence of chiral symmetry breaking in the coiling of the embryonic fly midgut, which displays a remarkable bistability in outcome under molecular perturbations. Using whole-organ live imaging, covariant measures of tissue dynamics, and mechanical modeling, we outline a ‘mechanical Waddington landscape’ framework to explain the global stability of chiral organ morphogenesis.
On the theoretical front, by viewing self-organization as noisy encoding, we prove that the positional information capacity of short-range classical systems with discrete states is fundamentally limited, and show how this limit can be bypassed when long-range correlations are present. Together, these results show how biological and physical processes can cooperate to enable and regulate developmental process.