Professor Jinsu Kim’s Research Team Establishes a Theoretical Framework for Controlling Biological Noise in Cells

 A joint research team including Professor Jinsu Kim of the Department of Mathematics at POSTECH has theoretically established a principle for controlling biological noise within cells using mathematical modeling. This study provides a theoretical foundation for understanding and regulating the emergence of so-called “outlier” cells, which have been identified as a major cause of cancer recurrence and antibiotic resistance.

 The research was conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), led by CI Jaekyung Kim (KAIST). The team mathematically analyzed a key limitation of conventional gene circuit technologies: while they can regulate average behavior across a cell population, they often amplify variability among individual cells. To address this issue, the researchers proposed a Noise Controller model, combining dimerization reactions with degradation-based actuation, and demonstrated that cellular variability can be theoretically suppressed to its minimal achievable level.

 When the model was virtually applied to the DNA repair system of Escherichia coli, the results showed a significant improvement. In conventional systems, approximately 20% of cells failed to repair DNA damage and died, whereas the application of the noise controller reduced the cell death rate to about 7%.

 Professor Kim commented, “This work demonstrates the power and potential of mathematical modeling, as it begins with reaction network theory and leads to the design of biologically meaningful mechanisms.”

 The study was published in Nature Communications on December 24, 2024.