"Thermodynamics of error correction" Dr. Simone Pigolotti

Abstract

Biological systems are able to replicate information with outstanding accuracy. This fact is intrinsically related with the non-equilibrium nature of the copy process. In biochemical reactions, such as DNA duplication, different monomers can be distinguished because of their binding energies or via non-equilibrium kinetic mechanisms. I will show how, in simple copying reactions, these two discrimination modes are mutually exclusive and lead to opposite tradeoffs between error, dissipation and reaction velocity.  In multi-step reactions, such as in kinetic proofreading, these different modes can be combined to improve overall accuracy. I will conclude by discussing how the second law of thermodynamics can be used to directly relate copying accuracy with thermodynamic observables.

Biography

Dr. Simone Pigolotti is a Ramon y Cajal tenure-track researcher at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. He received his Ph.D. in Statistical and Biological Physics at SISSA/ISAS (Trieste, Italy) in 2004. In his research, Dr. Pigolotti applies techniques of nonlinear and statistical physics to analyze biological and biophysical problems. One of his main achievements, obtained during a postdoc at the Niels Bohr Institute, has been a method to infer interactions in a biological regulatory network from observed time series of oscillating gene expression. He is also involved in understanding the biodiversity of spatially extended populations from a modeling perspective. More recently, he started studying how the accuracy of polymer duplication can be understood from a thermodynamic point of view. He authored more than 50 scientific publications, including the most important journals in physics, biology, and interdisciplinary.