Speaker: 

Postdoctoral Fellow German Enciso

Institution: 

Harvard University

Time: 

Monday, January 7, 2008 - 2:00pm

Location: 

Nat Sci II 1201

Determining the long-term behavior of large biochemical models has proved to be a remarkably difficult problem. Yet these models exhibit several characteristics that might make them amenable to study under the right perspective. One possible approach (first suggested by Sontag and
Angeli) is their decomposition in terms of so-called monotone systems, which can be thought of as systems with exclusively positive feedback.

In this talk I discuss some general properties of monotone dynamical systems, including recent results regarding their generic convergence
towards an equilibrium. Then I will discuss the use of monotone systems to model biochemical behaviors such as switches and oscillations under
time delays.