Today, high-throughput technologies allow to draft the huge chemical networks regulating cellular metabolism, gene expression, and signalling pathways. Navigating into these data is an excruciating task. We believe that thermodynamic constraints might help analyze and interpret the functioning of Chemical Networks. We have two major lines of research.
On the one side, we work with the Chemical Master Equation to analyze the stochastic dynamics and thermodynamics and relate it to topological properties of the network, such as the concept of its deficiency:
MP, A. Wachtel and M. Esposito, Dissipation in noisy chemical networks: The role of deficiency, J. Chem. Phys. 143, 184103 (2015).
On the other hand, we want to describe the thermodynamic constraints on network reconstruction, in view of a fast and reliable algorithm. This paper sets the stage for doing that, giving a first-principles characterization of the thermodynamics of a CN. Again, topology plays a crucial role:
MP and M. Esposito, Irreversible thermodynamics of open chemical networks I: Emergent cycles and broken conservation laws, J. Chem. Phys. 141, 024117 (2014).