Utrecht University
Netherlands
Long term information integration: evolution of evolution
Phylogenetic analysis has uncovered many interesting and surprising patterns in both long term and short term evolution. I will use a non-supervised evolutionary modeling approach to asses how surprising these feature, in fact, are from Darwinian evolutionary viewpoint when we allow the genotype-phenotype to evolve and allow not only point mutations, but also INDELS of various sizes. Giving enough degrees of freedom we recover a number of the observed features, and conclude that these are generic properties of mutation/selection processes.
Paulien Hogeweg studied biology at the University of Amsterdam. She performed her graduate studies in Utrecht and received her PhD in1976. She coined the term Bioinformatics for the study of informatic processes in biotic systems and has headed her own research group in this area since 1976. In 1991 she became full professor at the Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics Group at the Department of Biology at Utrecht University. Since 2009 she is honorary professor in this group.
The aim of the Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics Groups research is to understand biotic systems as dynamic information processing systems at many interconnected levels. To this end the group develops and uses large scale computational modeling approaches. They apply this work concept in various area’s of biology: e.g. intracellular regulation, development, behavior, ecology. In all these area’s the group focuses on the role of spatial pattern formation and other emergent properties. Research projects in all these area’s are available. Currently the main focus is on multilevel evolution, a part of the emerging field of evolutionary systems biology.
For more information, visit the group website at http://www-binf.bio.uu.nl/ph/