Distinguished Speaker Series: Self-replicating Sets of Molecules in Hypergraphs and Chemical Space

Prof. Jotun Hein, Chair of Bioinformatics, Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, UK

23 October 2019, 11:00 
Britania building, room 222, Life Sciences, TAU 
Distinguished Speaker Series

Abstract:  

A key step in the origin of life is the emergence of a primitive metabolism. This requires the formation of a subset of chemical reactions that is both self-sustaining and collectively autocatalytic. A generic theory to study such processes (called `RAF theory' first defined by Mike Steel in 2000.  RAF stands for Reflexive Autocatalytic Foodset.) has provided a precise and computationally effective way to address these questions. 

A RAF lives in hypergraph with 4 components: A universe of molecules (nodes), a set of molecules present in amble supply [Food], a set of reactions [directed hyper-edges] that transform a set of molecules

In this talk I will:

1. Give a brief overview overview of RAF-theory and its development over that last 2 decades.

2. Gives some recent results due to Oliver Weller-Davies and Mike Steel.

3.  Discuss some more practical results due to William Kurdahl Larsen, Daniel Shiloh Malawsky and Søren Riis where it is attempted to map the components of RAF-Theory (molecules, reactions, catalysis) into Chemical Space and see which autocatalytic sets it predicts.

Slides can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0vupekr1nctsxk/Berlin%209%209%2019%20RAF.pptx?dl=0

Collaboration with Søren Riis, William Kurdahl, Daniel Shiloh Malawsky, Mike Steel

 

Host: Prof. Tal Pupko, Life Sciences, TAU.

 

 

 

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