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Feature Article

Open-System Nonequilibrium Steady State: Statistical Thermodynamics, Fluctuations, and Chemical Oscillations

Hong Qian

Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195

J. Phys. Chem. B, 2006, 110 (31), pp 15063–15074

DOI: 10.1021/jp061858z

Publication Date (Web): July 11, 2006

Hong Qian was born in Shanghai, China. He received his B. S. in astrophysics from Peking University in 1982, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in 1989, working with Prof. Elliot Elson on fluorescence correlation cpectroscopy and single-particle tracking. His research interests turned to theoretical biophysical chemistry when he was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. John Schellman at the University of Oregon and with Prof. John Hopfield at the California Institute of Technology. After a brief stay with the Department of Biomathematics at the UCLA School of Medicine, he joined the University of Washington in 1997 and is now Professor of Applied Mathematics. His current research is in stochastic analysis and statistical physics of biological systems.

Abstract

Gibbsian equilibrium statistical thermodynamics is the theoretical foundation for isothermal, closed chemical, and biochemical reaction systems. This theory, however, is not applicable to most biochemical reactions in living cells, which exhibit a range of interesting phenomena such as free energy transduction, temporal and spatial complexity, and kinetic proofreading. In this article, a nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamic theory based on stochastic kinetics is introduced, mainly through a series of examples: single-molecule enzyme kinetics, nonlinear chemical oscillation, molecular motor, biochemical switch, and specificity amplification. The case studies illustrate an emerging theory for the isothermal nonequilibrium steady state of open systems.

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