Structural Coding and Information Theory for Biological Systems
Manish K. Gupta, PhD
Department of Mathematics
Queens University, Kingston, Canada
Home Page: http://www.mast.queensu.ca/~mankg
ABSTRACT
The quest for information processing principles in molecular biology is one
of the most fundamental and challenging problems. Coding and information
theory is quite useful for classical digital information processing
(storage and communication). Recent progress at the interface of computer
science, mathematics, physics and molecular biology suggest that these
concepts should be generalized to form a biological coding and information
theory for natural information processing both in vivo and in vitro.
Structural biological information processing seems to be natural choice to
consider as most of the biological processes in cells are based on specific
molecular recognitions by protein structures and their functional regions.
Does there exist structural coding and information theory for such biological systems?
In this introductory talk we will explore this question from an interdisciplinary approach and review some preliminary ideas. The first basic question that one should answer is the following.
What is the best way of encoding structural information?
We will also point out various connections of this topic to other fields.
Place: Room 212, California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3)
Time and Date: 12-1 pm, May 08, 2006