Self-Organization and Robustness in Biological Systems

Understanding and managing complex systems — characterized by emergent, self-organized patterns at scales larger than those of the interacting parts — has crystallized as one of the most pressing problems of our time, affecting studies in fields from biology to sociology to medicine and financial markets. Because biological systems have faced a range of challenges throughout evolutionary history that has led to a diversity of robust solutions, they are ideal for the study of complex systems, and solutions inferred from biology have successfully been applied to system design and management in other fields. It is therefore imperative not only to study individual biological systems, but also to compare broadly their organizing principles and emergent properties. The Tarnita Lab uses theoretical and empirical approaches to study the organization and emergent properties and behaviors of biological systems across spatiotemporal scales, from single cells to entire ecosystems. In this talk, Corina Tarnita will give an overview of their approach and what they have learned so far.