Speakers
Description
Cell growth and division are fundamental processes that shape cellular physiology and population dynamics across diverse organisms. Over the past century, substantial progress has been made in identifying the molecular components governing these processes. Yet growth and division are inherently complex, and bridging mechanistic descriptions with the statistical patterns observed in cell-size variability and gene-expression fluctuations remains challenging. Furthermore, the two processes are often treated as separate subfields, leaving open fundamental questions about how they are dynamically coupled and their involvement in cell size control.
Recent phenomenological models treat growth and division as stochastic processes and have shown promise in explaining empirical patterns. However, the deeper issue—how such coarse-grained models constrain or reflect underlying mechanistic architectures—remains largely unresolved. This minisymposium brings together researchers in mathematical modeling and experimental biology to advance this connection and to share recent progress in linking microscopic mechanisms to stochastic descriptions.
