This will be the first workshop on molecular logic. A collaboration between University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the University of Diego Portales (Chile) started in May of 2012 with the visit of Claudio Fuentes to Aveiro.
Molecular Logic
Over time, the advent of functional genomics has enabled the characterization of the molecular constituents of life. Nowadays, the concept of “stored procedures” allows us to use model organisms to explore and infer the function of human genes and to place them in the normal and pathological context of their information pathways.
Today we are able to describe molecular interactions and biochemical changes that occur in organisms and then translate these descriptions to logic circuits that demonstrate how information is handled.
Specifically, it attempts to show how a biochemical process, such as the transcription of a repressor in a particular cell can be seen from the operation of the logic gates. This is what we might call the new molecular logic, a more technical and less philosophical connotation.
In this workshop we will address the fact that even though the logic gates have proven to be functionally appropriate for analyzing experimental data of cellular and biochemical processes, the models based on Boolean logic have limitations for conceptual and predictive value when analyzing complex biological processes. This is because many of the biological variables of interest, in fact, are continuous variables.
Here is a very interesting future challenge to logicians, mathematicians and researchers in cell biology.