The ups and downs of p53: understanding protein dynamics in single cells.

Cells living in a complex environment must constantly detect, process and appropriately respond to changing signals. Therefore, all cellular information processing is dynamic in nature. As a consequence, understanding the process of signal transduction often requires detailed quantitative analysis of dynamic behaviours. Here, we focus on the oscillatory dynamics of the tumour suppressor protein p53 as a model for studying protein dynamics in single cells to better understand its regulation and function.