(89a) A Long Journey with Prof. Ramkrishna – from Modeling Mammalian Cells to Balancing Bacteria

Ramkrishna has always been an inspiration to many experimentalists. I have the privilege of working with Prof. Ramkrishna for over a quarter century. Being a theorist, his imagination has never been bound by an experimentalist’s understanding of biological constrains. The abstract concepts that emerged in his theorizing mammalian cell metabolism first led us to a collaboration on the investigation of the multi-steady state behavior of mammalian cells in culture. The increased understanding of the intricate interactions among opposing regulatory elements prompted us to work together to examine the stability of the genetic circuit that balances the antibiotic resistant plasmid distribution in the bacteria population. The long collaboration has nurtured many industrial engineers and educators. Foremost, it has been a venture of joys.