Cells are the basic units of all living matter. They harness energy flows to drive biological functions. Most bio-chemical networks involved in energy transduction are nowadays well-characterized. However, the energetic costs and constraints for specific cellular processes remain largely unknown. In particular, what are the energy budgets of cells? What are the constraints and limits energy flows impose on cellular processes? Do cells operate near these limits, and, if so, how do energetic constraints impact cellular functions? Physics has provided poweerful tools to study nonequilibrium systems and to define these physical limits, but applying these tools to cell biology remains a challenge. Physical bioenergetics resides at the interface of nonequilibrium physics, energy metabolism, and cell biology. It seeks to understand how much energy cells use, how they partition this energy between different cellular processes, and the associated energetic constraints. In this School, we shall ...
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