Biological Oscillators: Design, Mechanism, Function

Symposium Overview

Oscillations are abundant – from hormonal oscillations with periods of days and months, to genetic fluctuations in the range of hours (circadian clock, embryonic oscillators), and metabolic and biochemical oscillations in the order of minutes (glycolytic oscillations) and seconds (Calcium-dynamics) – oscillations are central to biology across different temporal and spatial scales. At this symposium multiple disciplines will come together in order to discuss common mechanisms underlying the generation of oscillations.

This symposium aims to further strengthen a new, highly interdisciplinary community composed of scientists from very different fields and who share a common interest in oscillatory phenomena and biological dynamics. As such, this meeting provides a unique platform for this emerging new community working at the interface between quantitative biology, complex oscillatory systems and physics.

Session Topics

Oscillation mechanisms across different scales: from circadian clock to embryonic oscillators to biochemical (metabolic) oscillations

Oscillation function: besides known clock functions, other emerging concepts of oscillatory dynamics as a basis for temporal signal encoding mechanisms

Quantitative/imaging approaches in order to study oscillatory dynamics

Synchronisation of coupled oscillators, such as coupled oscillators and synchronisation in various contexts and at different scales

Mathematical modelling and computational approaches to oscillatory dynamics