Quantitative Biology
This paper presents an analysis of the orientation selectivity properties of idealized models of complex cells in terms of affine quasi quadrature measures, which combine the responses of idealized models of simple cells in terms of affine…
Diabetes, a chronic condition that impairs how the body turns food into energy, i.e. blood glucose, affects 38 million people in the US alone. The standard treatment is to supplement carbohydrate intake with an artificial pancreas, i.e. a…
Measuring the forces of individual muscles in a muscle group around a joint is non-trivial, and researchers have suggested using surrogates for individual muscle forces instead. Traditionally, experimentalists have shown that the force…
Epigenetic landscapes, represented by patterns of chemical modifications on histone tails, are essential for maintaining cell identity and tissue homeostasis. These landscapes are shaped by multiple factors, including local biochemical…
Plants, being sessile organisms, have evolved a variety of defense mechanisms to protect themselves from invaders such as pathogens, insects, and herbivores. One key strategy is the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air,…
Understanding the neural correlates of sensory imagery is crucial for advancing cognitive neuroscience and developing novel Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) paradigms. This study investigated the influence of imagined temperature sensations…
Cancer research has traditionally focused on identifying driver genes, those with mutations that initiate tumorigenesis. The Cancer Driver Gene (CDG) paradigm, further supported by the observation of oncogene addiction in tumors, has…
This commentary extends the discussion by Parr et al. on memory and attention beyond individual cognitive systems. From the perspective of the Collective Predictive Coding (CPC) hypothesis -- a framework for understanding these faculties…
When individuals encounter observations that violate their expectations, when will they adjust their expectations and when will they maintain them despite these observations? For example, when individuals expect objects of type A to be…
Accounting for population age structure and age-specific contact patterns is crucial for accurate modelling of human infectious disease dynamics and impact. A common approach is to use contact matrices, which estimate the number of contacts…
Aotearoa New Zealand implemented a Covid-19 elimination strategy in 2020 and 2021, which enabled a large majority of the population to be vaccinated before being exposed to the virus. This strategy delivered one of the lowest pandemic…
Understanding the mechanisms that sustain high biodiversity remains a central challenge. MacArthur's classical consumer-resource model (MCRM) suggests that consumer diversity is limited by the number of available resources, yet empirical…
Downsizing the US public health workforce throughout 2025 amplifies potential risks during public health crises. Expert judgment from public health officials represents a vital information source, distinct from traditional surveillance…
Phylogenetic trees represent evolutionary relationships and can be uniquely defined by sets of finite-state biological characteristics. Despite prior work showing that sufficiently large trees can be determined by $r$-state character sets,…
Living cells sense noisy biochemical signals crucial for survival, yet models incorporating intracellular signaling are limited. This study examines how cells sense chemotactic concentrations through phosphorylation readouts in Ca2+…
The growing importance of mRNA therapeutics and synthetic biology highlights the need for models that capture the latent structure of synonymous codon (different triplets encoding the same amino acid) usage, which subtly modulates…
Despite growth being fundamental to all aspects of cell biology, we do not yet know its organizing principles in eukaryotic cells. Classic models derived from the bacteria E. coli posit that protein-synthesis rates are set by mass-action…
Understanding which genes control which traits in an organism remains one of the central challenges in biology. Despite significant advances in data collection technology, our ability to map genes to traits is still limited. This…
Variations in complex traits are influenced by multiple genetic variants, environmental risk factors, and their interactions. Though substantial progress has been made in identifying single genetic variants associated with complex traits,…
Purpose: To classify eyes as slow or fast glaucoma progressors in patients with primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) using an integrated approach combining optic nerve head (ONH) structural features and sector-based visual field (VF)…