Biological systems across multiple length-scales and timescales are united by a need to organize themselves in a manner that is both robust to noise and responsive to relevant perturbations. This idea of biological plasticity exists at the level of individual molecules and persists through multicellular organization and beyond. As a result, while many research groups are focused on specific questions that fall under this general umbrella, superficially these topics may seem unrelated, despite the fact they are fundamentally asking about analogous physical frameworks.

The Plasticity in Biological Organization Telluride Science Workshop will bring together a collection of world-class scientists working on questions surrounding plasticity and adaption in biological systems who would, under normal circumstances, never meet. This will involve scientists from theoretical models of cellular organization to organismal and cellular responses to environmental changes to the evolution of allosteric communication, body plan patterning, and the emergence of multicellularity. We feel that the small, intimate setting of a TSRC workshop will be the ideal environment for fostering deep discussion and collaboration between researchers exploring the diverse spaces under the umbrella of biological organization and plasticity.