Schedule

The due dates, paper selections, and schedule below are tentative and subject to change.

Due dates

W 01/22
Homework 1 (based on Goentoro and Kirschner) [solutions]
W 01/22
Finalize paper choice for presentation 1 [suggested papers]
W 01/29
Homework 2 (based on Ben-Zvi, et al.) [solutions]
W 02/12
Homework 3 (based on Soroldoni, et al.) [solutions]
M 02/24
Finalize paper choice for presentation 2 [suggested papers]
W 02/26
Homework 4 (based on He, et al.) [solutions]
W 03/16
Homework 5 (based on Mayer, et al.) [solutions]
M 03/16
Homework 6 (based on Gross, et al.) due at 5 pm. Either turn it in to JB's mailbox or submit PDFs by email. [solutions]
M 03/16
Homework 7 due at 5 pm. Submit PDFs by email.

Lecture/reading/presentation schedule

Below is the class schedule. Friday class meetings typically involve discussions of research papers. Reading memos for each paper are due at 5 pm the day before the in-class discussion. The paper to be discussed is linked on the schedule. Underneath discussion papers are supplemental reading that will help give context and understanding to the main paper for our discussion. These supplemental readings are recommended, but not required.


Lecture notes download (last updated January 13, 2020)


Additional notes on active nematic fluids


M 01/06
1. Welcome
W 01/08
2. Biochemical kinetics in signaling
F 01/10
3. Wnt signaling (Jupyter notebook)
M 01/13
4. Reaction-diffusion patterns
W 01/15
5. The Delta-Notch system
F 01/17
Discussion of Goentoro and Kirschner paper (questions to consider)
M 01/20
No class: Martin Luther King Day
W 01/22
6. Segmentation clocks
F 01/24
Discussion of Ben-Zvi, et al. paper (questions to consider)
M 01/27
7. Effective presentations I: talk structure and delivery [slides]
W 01/29
8. Effective presentations II: slide design [slides] (talk by Jean-luc Doumont)
F 01/31
Discussion of Soroldoni, et al. paper (questions to consider)
M 02/03
Student presentations
  • Nakamasu, et al., Interactions between zebrafish pigment cells responsible for the generation of Turing patterns
  • Voliotis, et al., Information transfer by leaky, heterogeneous, protein kinase signaling systems
  • Frick, et al., Sensing relative signal in the Tgf-β/Smad pathway
  • Petkova, et al., Optimal Decoding of Cellular Identities in a Genetic Network
W 02/05
Student presentations
  • Johnson and Toettcher, Signaling Dynamics Control Cell Fate in the Early Drosophila Embryo
  • Antebi, et al., Combinatorial Signal Perception in the BMP Pathway
  • Lim, et al., Design Principles of Regulatory Networks Searching for the Molecular Algorithms of the Cell
  • Toda, et al., Programming self-organizing multicellular structures with synthetic cell-cell signaling
F 02/07
Student presentations
M 02/10
9. Continuum mechanics I: Conservation of mass
W 02/12
10. Continuum mechanics II: Conservation of momentum
F 02/13
11. Viscous flow in development
M 02/17
No class: Presidents Day
W 02/19
12. Continuum mechanics III: Active nematic gels (see also Jülicher, Grill, and Salbreux, 2018)
F 02/21
Discussion of He, et al. paper
M 02/24
13. Viscoelasticity and laser ablation
W 02/26
Catch-up day (previous five lectures take six hours)
F 02/28
Discussion of Mayer, et al. (questions to consider)
M 03/02
Discussion of Goehring, et al. (questions to consider)
W 03/04
Inteview about Gross, et al. paper (questions to consider; no reading memo required)
F 03/06
Course wrap-up
M 03/09
Student presentations
W 03/11
Student presentations
F 03/13
Student presentations