100 years after Smoluchowski: stochastic processes in cell biology. (25th January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Holcman, D; Schuss, Z
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 50:Number 9(2017)
• Publication Date: 2017-01-25
• Subjects: stochastic processes -- biophysics -- barrow escape -- first passage time -- polymer looping -- stochatic gene activation -- telomere modeling; Mathematical physics -- Periodicals; Statistical physics -- Periodicals; Quantum theory -- Periodicals; Matter -- Properties -- Periodicals; 530.105
• DOI: 10.1088/1751-8121/50/9/093002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8113

Abstract

Abstract: 100 years after Smoluchowski introduced his approach to stochastic processes, they are now at the basis of mathematical and physical modeling in cellular biology: they are used for example to analyse and to extract features from a large number (tens of thousands) of single molecular trajectories or to study the diffusive motion of molecules, proteins or receptors. Stochastic modeling is a new step in large data analysis that serves extracting cell biology concepts. We review here Smoluchowski's approach to stochastic processes and provide several applications for coarse-graining diffusion, studying polymer models for understanding nuclear organization and finally, we discuss the stochastic jump dynamics of telomeres across cell division and stochastic gene regulation.