Paulien Hogeweg

Research Interests

The aim of my research is to understand biotic systems as dynamic information processing systems at many interconnected levels. In the seventies we identified the study of informatic processes in biotic systems as an open and promising research area for which we coined the term Bioinformatics . Within this framework my current research focuses on evolutionary dynamics and morhogenesis.

Our research on multilevel evolution aims to understand how different levels of selection, complex genotype phenotype mapping, and interactions over different timescales contribute to the evolution of complexity at the level of individuals and/or ecosystems. A central conjecture of our current research is that spatial pattern formation, and therewith selection pressures at multiple timescales is a prerequisite for evolving complex regulatory individuals. We are now investigating this conjecture focusing on mutual interactions between

• gene regulation and evolution , connecting the qualitative features of our abstract models of regulatory networks to insight obtained from analyzing genomic data (and vice versa).
• learning and evolution in complex environments, focusing on foraging 'cultures'
• levels of selection in prebiotic evolution and the consequences thereof for information accumulation

My research on (evolution of) morphogenesis focuses on the interaction between genetic (informatic) and dynamic processes. We use (and further develop) a powerful method for multi-scale modeling (CPM). This allows us to study morphogenesis in the literary sense as opposed to many developmental models which only consider pattern formation. Apart from developing models of specific developmental processes we study morphogenetic mechanisms which arise 'de-novo' in evolutionary models.

Computational Biology course

See also: . Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics group