Unifying Theories in High-Dimensional Biophysics - Talks by Krishna Shrinivas and Simone Pigolotti

Explore two research talks by Krishna Shrinivas and Simone Pigolotti from the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences' program on "Unifying Theories in High-Dimensional Biophysics." Delve into cutting-edge theoretical and computational approaches that address the formidable challenge of understanding biological systems' high-dimensional nature. Discover how low-dimensional models can surprisingly explain complex empirical observations while providing testable predictions across diverse biological fields including development, immunology, ecology, evolution, neuroscience, and behavior. Learn about emerging mathematical frameworks that describe simplicity across different biological systems, examining whether common principles like evolvability and functional robustness enable low-dimensional descriptions. Investigate the role of machine learning in finding low-dimensional structure from sequence data in developing organisms, tumors, and large-scale neural recordings. Consider the challenges of understanding truly high-dimensional systems such as fine-scale diversity in microbial ecosystems and explore what constitutes good 'null' models for explaining biological phenomenology. Gain insights into the cross-pollination of ideas and techniques within high-dimensional biophysics as part of this interdisciplinary meeting designed to bring together theoretical and computational physicists working across diverse areas of biology to identify commonalities, highlight differences, and progress toward unifying frameworks.