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Control loop designs in health and disease

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Control loop designs are widely present in biology but can undergo errors, which can be fixed using generic strategies. Loop designs in response to organismal stress exhibit distinct features and are under ongoing investigations. Understanding control theory as an organizing principle in biology creates a broader perspective on endocrine and non-endocrine systems.

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Fig. 1: Control loop designs as an organizing principle in biology.

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Acknowledgements

N.P.J. was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Gerok position, μBone SPP 2084). Andrew Wang (Department of Immunobiology, Yale) critically reviewed this manuscript. Ruslan Medzhitov’s (Department of Immunbiology, Yale) pioneering frameworks on control theory in physiology and disease shaped this manuscript. Further, I appreciate the great work of all scientists discussed here, which could not be cited due to space limitations.

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  1. Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine III & Center for Healthy Aging, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Nikolai P. Jaschke

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  1. Nikolai P. Jaschke
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Correspondence to Nikolai P. Jaschke.

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Jaschke, N.P. Control loop designs in health and disease. Nat Rev Endocrinol 18, 653–654 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-022-00753-9

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