About

The Quantitative Biology program of the Institut Pasteur is intended to facilitate research and education at the interface of biology and the more quantitative sciences. One of the major aims of Quantitative Biology is thus to understand the underlying principles of complex biological behavior in terms of physical and mathematical models. This approach overarches all fields of biology.

The initiative has organised since 2016 height international symposium covering transversal topics (e.g.: the role of forces in biology, networks in neurobiology, the physics of membranes, quantitative biology of bacteria, bridging the scales and collective behaviours, physics of cancer, mechanics development and evolution). We have organised between 2021 and 2024 a monthly internal seminar serie regrouping junior speakers from different groups sharing works in progress in a very interactive format.

Since 2024, the Qbio initiative organises bi-monthly minisymposiums on transversal topics regrouping internal speakers as well as invited local speakers sharing their science in a informal setting. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to hear about our future events.

Teams

Qbio Symposia

• October 17th 2016: “Kick off meeting” of the Qbio program (Guillaume Duménil, Sven van Teeffelen)
• June 9th 2017: “Forces in Biology” (Romain Levayer, Nicolas Dray, Sandrine Etienne-Manneville, Patrick England, Alexandre Dufour).
• May 25th 2018: “Physics of Biological Membranes” (Thomas Wollert (IP), Patricia Bassereau (Curie))
• October 11-12 2018: “Neural networks – from machines to brains” (David Di Gregorio, JB Masson, and Christoph Schmidt-Hieber (IP), Rémi Monasson (ENS))
• January 2019: “Quantitative cell biology of bacteria“ (Guillaume Duménil, Sven van Teeffelen)
• June 2021: “Bridging the scales, from single cells, to populations, tissues and organs”  (Charles Baroud, Romain Levayer)
• October 2021: “The physics of cancer” (Sandrine Etienne-Manneville, Romain Levayer, jointly with the Cancer intiative)
• December 2022: “MeMoDEvo: Mechanics, Morphogenesis, Development and Evolution” (Thibaut Brunet, Romain Levayer, Katja Heuer and Roberto Toro)

 

 

Quantitative biology at the Institut Pasteur

Many Pasteur laboratories are integrating physical approaches in their studies ranging from structural biology, via cell biology, to infection, neurobiology  and development.
• Multiscale self-organization is studied at the level of protein machineries in bacteria,  cytoskeleton during the migration of eucaryotic cells and organizaton of tissues during development.
• Cellular and tissue mechanics are explored during bacterial aggregation,  grastrulation and heart development as well as during amoebae movement.
• Information processing and signaling are studied in the context of neurobiology, 3D genome architecture, transciption and cell decision making.

Objectives of the Qbio program at Institut Pasteur

The Quantitative Biology program aims to encourage these developments on campus. The major purpose of this program is:
• To foster interactions between scientists involved in Quantitative Biology at Institut Pasteur through seminars and mini-symposiums.
• To bring quantitatively trained scientists into biology
• To encourage biologists to integrate quantitative models into their research

Qbio progress reports:

The Qbio programm organise monthly progress reports where early career scientists (PhD, postdoc) present ongoing projects at the interface between biology, physics and/or mathematics in an informal setting.  The primary aim is to foster interactions on the campus. The meetings currently take place online and on site on Thursdays at 2pm every month. Contact the organisers if you would like to join.

Pictures & Media