Exploring the Biological Foundations of Life: From Cellular Processes to Organismal Complexity

Life remains possible only through many natural processes, both tiny and large. The work looks at cell functions such as processing food, expressing genes and responding to communications which are important for any life. It explores how each of these functions and changes come together in multicellular organisms. The study examines some current methods used to look at biological systems closely at many levels. The analysis demonstrates that how cells function and the organization of biological systems have major impacts on homeostasis, development and how organisms adapt. Participants discussed the hardships of studying life and what recent work in systems biology and synthetic biology can help achieve.