Fluctuations, Landscapes and Statistical Mechanics of Biological Heterogeneity

This Gordon Research Conference on Stochastic Physics in Biology focuses on the interface where physics meets molecular and cellular biology, by bringing together physical scientists interested in stochastic processes and molecular/cell biologists interested in biological heterogeneity. This conference aims to promote a quantitative non-equilibrium stochastic description of molecular and cell biology by considering stochastic aspects of molecular function and transport, cellular and sub-cellular structure, gene expression and cell functions, intra-cellular and intercellular interactions, and cell dynamics, eventually extending to larger scales including development, evolution and ecology. This new description will have direct implications for biomedicine for human diseases involving cellular heterogeneity such as cancer, stem cell differentiation/tissue engineering, and bacteria infections, by allowing the conceptual framework of statistical physics to be applied to understanding the origins and impact of heterogeneity at different scales.