The main goal of the work proposed in this pilot project is to develop a general formalism framework that aims at describing transport phenomena in the cell. In our previous studies on other types of non-equilibrium transport processes, we successfully used basic fluctuation dissipation theory. However, that theory alone cannot account for the anomalous diffusion coefficient observed in different inhomogeneous media. We are proposing to describe the cell's inhomogeneous media in a new way by using novel geometric models. We have named these models quasi-fractal structures. Both computational and analytical methods will be used to calculate the effective diffusion coefficients for these quasi-fractal structures. The general formalism we intend to develop will, therefore, combine classic fluctuation dissipation principals with methods based on our geometric models, or quasi-fractal structures. It will provide a general approach to solving apparently different problems relating to cellula r transport phenomena, such as diffusion controlled bimolecular reactions in the cytoplasm and ion permeation in ion channels.
