An engineering viewpoint on biological robustness

BMC Biology

Review

Mustafa Khammash¹ 

[1] Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, Switzerland;

关键词: Negative Feedback;    Operational Amplifier;    Disturbance Rejection;    Terminal Cell;    Robustness Property;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12915-016-0241-x

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

In his splendid article “Can a biologist fix a radio? — or, what I learned while studying apoptosis,” Y. Lazebnik argues that when one uses the right tools, similarity between a biological system, like a signal transduction pathway, and an engineered system, like a radio, may not seem so superficial. Here I advance this idea by focusing on the notion of robustness as a unifying lens through which to view complexity in biological and engineered systems. I show that electronic amplifiers and gene expression circuits share remarkable similarities in their dynamics and robustness properties. I explore robustness features and limitations in biology and engineering and highlight the role of negative feedback in shaping both.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Khammash. 2016

【 图 表 】

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