Mathematicians have made a groundbreaking discovery that could change the way we approach personalized medicine. They have uncovered universal design principles for molecular networks that promote survival and adaptation in all forms of life. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, describes a process called robust perfect adaptation (RPA), where biological systems maintain important molecules within narrow concentration ranges despite constant disturbances.
The researchers found that molecules of living systems cannot simply “transmit” biochemical signals, but must make “computations” on these signals. To achieve this, biological systems use a form of regulation called integral control, which has been a design strategy used by engineers for almost a century. However, the researchers discovered that signaling networks in nature are vastly different, relying on physical interactions between discrete molecules, often without feedback loops.
The researchers’ discovery of fundamental molecular-level design principles could provide a completely fresh approach to tackle grand challenges in personalized medicine, such as cancer drug resistance, addiction, and autoimmune diseases. The study could lead to the design of synthetic biosystems that are capable of adapting to new and variable conditions while maintaining tight control over key survival properties.
Robyn Araujo, from Queensland University of Technology School of Mathematical Sciences and the study’s corresponding author, explained that the researchers had identified multiple independent integrals that collaborate to confer the capacity for adaptation on specific molecules. Using an algebraic algorithm based on this finding, the researchers were able to demonstrate the existence of embedded integrals in biologically important chemical reaction networks whose ability to exhibit adaptation could never before be explained by any systematic method.
The researchers’ discovery represents a blueprint for adaptation-capable signaling networks across all domains of life. It provides a new understanding of the complex intermolecular interactions that organize all forms of biological complexity into robustness-promoting and ultimately survival-promoting chemical reaction structures. This discovery could have far-reaching implications for personalized medicine, synthetic biology, and our understanding of the principles that underpin the evolution of life.