The goal of the Garcia-Ojalvo lab (Dynamic Systems Biology, UPF) is to understand how the behaviour of living systems (specifically cells and tissues) emerges from the interactions among their components (genes and proteins within cells, and cells within tissues).

To pursue that goal, we use the inherently nonlinear and dynamical character of biological systems, both deterministic and stochastic, as a constraint to identify the operating principles through which living matter self-organises in space and time. Our work involves a close interplay between experimental observations and predictive theoretical approaches coming from statistical and nonlinear physics. The phenomena that we study include the coordination of dynamical processes in single cells, the origins and effects of randomness and heterogeneity in cellular behaviour, and the response of cells and organs (such as the brain) to time-varying environments. The organisms studied range from bacteria to humans.

https://www.upf.edu/web/dsb