A Quantitative Narrative for the Life Cycle of Bacteriophage Lambda

The goal of my lab is to form a quantitative narrative for the fundamental processes driving the living cell. This narrative is built upon precise measurements performed in individual cells, at the level of individual molecules and discrete events in space and time. To achieve this level of detail, we are using a synthesis of approaches: classical molecular biology and biochemistry; single-cell and single-molecule fluorescence microscopy; advanced image- and data analysis algorithms. By using simple, coarse-grained theoretical models, we are able to distill our result into general principles, which can then be compared across organisms. I will present a few examples from our work, focusing on the study of the life cycle of bacteriophage lambda, a simple paradigm for cellular decision making.