Dr. Anna Dittrich

Signalling pathways are inherently heterogeneous between individual cells, with variations in expression levels of proteins, their molar ratios, activation status and dynamics. It is particularly intriguing – but not well understood - how cells within multicellular organisms can robustly transmit information, despite such universal heterogeneity. To explore this phenomenon, I investigate the impact of cell-to-cell heterogeneity and signalling molecule stoichiometry on signalling dynamics and cellular responses, both in physiological and pathological contexts.

Keywords: signaltransduction, IL-6, Jak/STAT, SOCS3, Information theory, heterogeneity, robustness