Microbial Communication: Mathematical Modeling, Synthetic Biology and the Role of Noise

This book introduces the concept of bacterial communication systems from a mathematical modeling point of view. It sheds light on the research undertaken in the last three decades, and the mathematical models that have been proposed to understand the underlying mechanism of such systems. These communication systems are related to quorum sensing mechanisms and quorum sensing regulated processes such as biofilm formation, gene expression, bioluminescence, swarming and virulence. 

The book further describes the phenomenon of noise, and discusses how noise plays a crucial role in gene expression and the quorum sensing circuit operationusing a set of tools like frequency domain analysis, power spectral density, stochastic simulation and the whitening effect. It also explores various aspects of synthetic biology (related to bacterial communication), such as genetic toggle switch, bistable gene regulatory networks, transcriptional repressor systems, pattern formation, syntheticcooperation, predator-prey synthetic systems, dynamical quorum sensing, synchronized quorum of genetic clocks, role of noise in synthetic biology, the Turing test and stochastic Turing test.

Prof. Sisir Roy is a theoretical physicist currently working as a Visiting Professor and Senior Homi Bhabha Fellow, National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc Campus, Bangalore. Previously he worked as a Professor at the Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata from 1980 to 2014, and as a Visiting Scientist at the Institute Henri Poincare, Paris, France, from 1986 to 87. He has also worked as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at numerous US and European Universities. He has collaborated with Prof. J.P. Vigier, France; Prof. Bo Lehnert, Alfven Laboratory, Sweden; Prof. Menas Kafatos, George Mason University; Prof. Ralph Abraham, University of California; and Prof. Rodolfo Llinas, New York University School of Medicine, NY,USA. Hismain interests includethe foundations of quantum theory, theoretical astrophysics, quantum biology, brain function modeling and higher-order cognitive activities. He has published more than two hundred papers in various peer-reviewed, international journals, twelve monographs and edited volumes published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, World Scientific, Singapore, Springer and others.  He is currently a member of the editorial boards of various international journals. His recent books include: Sisir Roy (2016) Decision making and modeling in cognitive science, Springer