Biological Algorithms Group

Our mission is to identify simple paradigms of robust motility control and pattern formation in complex biological systems. We reverse-engineer biological solutions of robust control in close collaboration with experimental biologists. We use tools from physics, information theory, and engineering; likewise, we seek to excite bio-inspired applications of biological information processing in these fields.

We focus on principles of biological information processing in two model systems:

  1. Motility control: We study how noisy sensory information controls biological motility and dynamic decision making, e.g. during sperm navigation to the egg.
  2. Pattern control: We study elementary rules of self-organized pattern formation during self-repair and adaptation, e.g. of load-balancing transport networks in the liver.

On top of that, we explore potential applications of biological control designs in advanced electronics applications in tight collaboration with the other paths of the cfaed.

We are currently searching for highly motivated and talented students to work at the interface of physics and biology with a twist towards computer science.

Group News

"Fertilization in the sea: sperm chemotaxis in physiological shear flows" and "Resilience of three-dimensional sinusoidal networks in liver tissue"

Published on in FRIEDRICH GROUP NEWS

Post-doc on Information theory of navigation in complex, time-varying environments

Published on in FRIEDRICH GROUP NEWS

Francine and Ian will work on self-assembly of active force-generating myofibrils in muscle cells, a striking example of a "biological crystal" (funding by HFSP)

Published on in FRIEDRICH GROUP NEWS

Elena joined to work as research assistant on modeling information processing in artificial cells, Maja will do her Bachelor thesis on synchronization of coupled noisy oscillators: welcome!

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Iaroslav started as predoc to unravel the rules that guide the self-assembly of functional biomineral patterns of diatom silica shells

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Farewell to our summer intern Lidiia Nadporozhskaia (who did an impressing analysis of spermbot motility)

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Der Rektor Herr Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen experimentiert während der aLngen Nacht der Wissenschaften zur Navigation von biologischen Mikroschwimmern - per Liveschaltung zum Riedel-Kruse Lab der Stanford University

Published on in FRIEDRICH GROUP NEWS

Published on in FRIEDRICH GROUP NEWS

From left to right: Science minister Eva-Maria Stange, Carolin Hunger, PD Benjamin Friedrich, Rebekka Rudisch, Dr. Bernhard Siegmund, 2nd Mayor of Dresden Annekatrin Klepsch
(c) Christin Nitzsche: fallapart_photorgraphy

We feel very grateful to the the City of Dresden for honoring our interdisciplinary research in Biological Physics by a Dresden Excellence Award. Thanks also for the fantastic support from cfaed, Physics of Life, CSBD, and a great team in the past years - more to come! http://www.dresden.de/de/wirtschaft/wissenschaft/excellence-award/preistraeger-2018.php

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Microswimmers are microobjects that can actively move on a micro scale. Here: sperm with iron oxide particles.

The lecture series "Microswimmers" combines disciplines of life sciences, and as such four of five School of Sciences' faculties: Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics. "Microswimmers" brings together theory and application issues, focussing on providing an excellent teaching base on this present topic. It is co-organized by Dr. Benjamin M. Friedrich, Research group leader of cfaed's "Biological Algorithms Group".
This lecture series comprises 14 lectures from international speakers plus 14 reading seminars (Hauptseminare) which take place one week before each lecture and are held in a journal club style. This lecture is planned to run in the course of a full year (September 2018 - Juli 2019). Participating students are asked to read the provided articles (see Learning Material) and present an article in one of the reading seminars during the course of the lecture series.