The concept of information at the interface between statistics and systems biology

The purpose of the talk is to discuss intricacies of quantifying

information in some problems arising at the interface between statistic

and biology.  Behaviour generated by interacting molecules, cells or

tissues is not random but focuses on sustaining life processes.

Sustaining life, however, is to the large extend based on information

storage, transmission and processing with examples ranging from the

iconic DNA double-helix through signal transduction pathways to

proteomic and metabolic networks. Understanding how information is

processed in living cells and organism is therefore one of the crucial

elements to understand how life is sustained.

The concept of information however is also inherent to statistics with

Fisher and Shannon as most well known concepts. It has been

originally associated with a precision  parameters can be estimated in

an experiment. Alternative approach by C. Shannon arose on the basic

of communication theory and was later  assimilated by statistical

sciences.

In the talk I will discuss relationships between such objects as

posterior distribution, Shannon Information, Fisher Information and

Jeffrey's prior. Using examples of  experimental design techniques and

signal transduction pathways I will demonstrate how statistical theory

can be used to better understand biological systems at the cellular

level.