Essential to life at all scales is the ability to modify one’s own form, composition, and function to respond to varied stimuli. This collection will bring together new insights into mechanisms of adaptation in living systems across scales and systems, with a focus on the understanding of learning and memory in adaptive responses. By putting these studies together, we aim to catalyze new ideas and approaches that reveal core principles and shared mathematics across diverse scales and biological phenomena.
We welcome primary research articles that study adaptation, memory, and learning in diverse biological phenomena quantitatively. Examples include: biological filament networks, developmental trajectories of epithelial tissues, immune systems, ecological communities, and neuroscience. We also encourage submissions on topics of physical learning systems and artificial neural networks that are motivated by, or provide new insights, into the design of living systems as well as mathematical tools and statistical approaches that can be used to characterize learning across physical and biological systems.
The collection is open for submissions until Sept. 1, 2025. Papers will appear on a rolling basis. Please mention in the cover letter that you would like your paper to be considered for the 2025 Collection on Adaptation and Learning in Biological Systems.
The Guest Editors
Andrea Liu, University of Pennsylvania
Margaret Gardel, University of Chicago
Lisa Manning, Syracuse University
Haina Wang, University of Pennsylvania
Ed Munro, University of Chicago
Sadjad Arzash, Syracuse University
