Benjamin Friedrich Group

Our Research Mission

How do cells and tissues process noisy information and robustly self-organize into functional structures?

The Biological Algorithms Group is passionate about understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of living systems across scales and identifying underlying control principles. We combine minimal mathematical models, multi-scale simulations and image analysis. Biological systems of interest include the dynamics of cilia, cellular navigation, and pattern formation during embryonic development and regeneration – e.g. how muscle cells form crystal-like myofibrils, diatom cells build their intricate glass shells, and axolotl regrow lost limbs of correct size. We use tools from nonlinear dynamics, stochastic processes, statistical physics and information theory. Our research is positioned right at the interface of mathematics, physics and biology, and characterized by rapid iteration loops between theory (done by us) and experiment (by close collaboration partners). We aim at quantitative theoretical descriptions of biological dynamics in cells and tissues, calibrated by experimental data and allowing for testable predictions, to decipher algorithms of life.