#22 · Systems biology

First-passage timing separable from steady-state output in stochastic regulatory models

The dominant thread is treating first-passage timing and steady-state output as separable properties of stochastic regulatory models. An exact renewal-equation framework links first-passage timing to branching growth and is applied to optimal bacteriophage lysis time. A Markov process analysis shows that readout steady state can change with input while mean first-passage activation time remains fixed, through rate scaling. A minimal model of phage lysis-lysogeny decisions attributes MOI-dependent asymmetry to host protease coupling and derives scaling laws; this addresses decision asymmetry rather than first-passage timing directly, so its link to the shared scope is partial. What is distinctive is the separation of timing from steady-state output, rather than treating them as coupled outcomes.