Unidirectional transport and gene translation

We use physical models to understand how ribosomes translate mRNA into proteins—a key process of life.

Translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) by ribosomes is an essential step in gene expression. To model this, we employ frameworks from statistical physics, particularly the TASEP (Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process), a paradigm for describing unidirectional particle transport with exclusion interactions.

These models allow us to explore how ribosomes move along mRNA, how translation speeds vary by codon, and how phenomena such as mRNA degradation influence protein production.

We develop theoretical and computational approaches to link ribosome density profiles (derived from Ribo-Seq data) to underlying kinetic rates, paving the way for a quantitative understanding of translation regulation and how intracellular transport of ribosomal complexes coupled to protein synthesis determines the spatiotemporal dynamics of intracellular protein concentration profiles.

Sub-Themes :

• Stochastic Models for mRNA Translation
• Impact of Fluctuations and mRNA Degradation
• Inverse Methods for Estimating Kinetic Rates
• Reaction and Transport Models for Spatiotemporal Protein Organization