Using Artificial Reagents to Dissect Cellular Genetic Networks

I describe work from the laboratory that promises to improve our ability to analyze the networks of genes that govern biological phenomena. By deepening our understanding of the genetic networks that govern gene expression and signal transduction, these experiments should speed the day when we can quantitatively predict the behaviors of these systems and understand how the particular ways that cells use to perform computations arose. In the process, the technologies we use to explore these systems may provide useful starting points to help build new ones.