Speaker: Gabor Balazsi, Stony Brook University Title: Interactions between gene network dynamics and evolution Abstract: Synthetic biology designs and builds artificial biological systems, using principles from engineering, mathematics and physics. Synthetic biological devices can serve as simple model systems to elucidate complex biological processes, such as cellular and molecular evolution. For example, natural or synthetic genetic modules can degrade over long-term evolution if their function is costly. How populations can re-evolve to restore such broken function is poorly understood. To address this question, we use haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast) cells with functionally-defect, genomically-integrated synthetic positive-feedback (PF) gene circuits. We grew such PF mutants in conditions that impose selection to regain PF function. We observe various adaptation scenarios with or without repairing lost gene circuit function that suggest interactions between intracellular gene network dynamics and evolutionary dynamics. These results highlight how intracellular context, such as the growth rate, can connect regulatory network dynamics with evolutionary dynamics, which has important consequences for understanding the evolution of drug resistance and developing future synthetic biology applications.