Modeling Biomolecular Networks in Cells shows how the interaction between the molecular components of basic living organisms can be modelled mathematically and the models used to create artificial biological entities within cells. Such forward engineering is a difficult task but the nonlinear dynamical methods espoused in this book simplify the biology so that it can be successfully understood and the synthesis of simple biological oscillators and rhythm-generators made feasible. Such simple units can then be co-ordinated using intercellular signal biomolecules. The formation of such man-made multicellular networks with a view to the production of biosensors, logic gates, new forms of integrated circuitry based on "gene-chips" and even biological computers is an important step in the design of faster and more flexible "electronics". The book also provides theoretical frameworks and tools with which to analyze the nonlinear dynamical phenomena which arise from the connection of building units in a biomolecular network.
Computational modeling is emerging as a powerful new approach to study and manipulate biological systems. Multiple methods have been developed to model, visualize, and rationally alter systems at various length scales, starting from molecular modeling and design at atomic resolution to cellular pathways modeling and analysis. Higher time and length scale processes, such as molecular evolution, have also greatly benefited from new breeds of computational approaches. This book provides an overview of the established computational methods used for modeling biologically and medically relevant systems.
The book deals with engineering aspects of the two emerging and intertwined fields of synthetic and systems biology. Both fields hold promise to revolutionize the way molecular biology research is done, the way today’s drug discovery works and the way bio-engineering is done. Both fields stress the importance of building and characterizing small bio-molecular networks in order to synthesize incrementally and understand large complex networks inside living cells. Reminiscent of computer-aided design (CAD) of electronic circuits, abstraction is believed to be the key concept to achieve this goal. It allows hiding the overwhelming complexity of cellular processes by encapsulating network parts into abstract modules. This book provides a unique perspective on how concepts and methods from CAD of electronic circuits can be leveraged to overcome complexity barrier perceived in synthetic and systems biology.
Growth in the pharmaceutical market has slowed down – almost to a standstill. One reason is that governments and other payers are cutting costs in a faltering world economy. But a more fundamental problem is the failure of major companies to discover, develop and market new drugs. Major drugs losing patent protection or being withdrawn from the market are simply not being replaced by new therapies – the pharmaceutical market model is no longer functioning effectively and most pharmaceutical companies are failing to produce the innovation needed for success. This multi-authored new book looks at a vital strategy which can bring innovation to a market in need of new ideas and new products: Systems Biology (SB). Modeling is a significant task of systems biology. SB aims to develop and use efficient algorithms, data structures, visualization and communication tools to orchestrate the integration of large quantities of biological data with the goal of computer modeling. It involves the use of computer simulations of biological systems, such as the networks of metabolites comprise signal transduction pathways and gene regulatory networks to both analyze and visualize the complex connections of these cellular processes. SB involves a series of operational protocols used for performing research, namely a cycle composed of theoretical, analytic or computational modeling to propose specific testable hypotheses about a biological system, experimental validation, and then using the newly acquired quantitative description of cells or cell processes to refine the computational model or theory.
The book presents nine mini-courses from a summer school, Dynamics of Biological Systems, held at the University of Alberta in 2016, as part of the prestigious seminar series: Séminaire de Mathématiques Supérieures (SMS). It includes new and significant contributions in the field of Dynamical Systems and their applications in Biology, Ecology, and Medicine. The chapters of this book cover a wide range of mathematical methods and biological applications. They - explain the process of mathematical modelling of biological systems with many examples, - introduce advanced methods from dynamical systems theory, - present many examples of the use of mathematical modelling to gain biological insight - discuss innovative methods for the analysis of biological processes, - contain extensive lists of references, which allow interested readers to continue the research on their own. Integrating the theory of dynamical systems with biological modelling, the book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in Applied Mathematics and Life Sciences.
This book is the first to report on theoretical breakthroughs on control of complex dynamical systems developed by collaborative researchers in the two fields of dynamical systems theory and control theory. As well, its basic point of view is of three kinds of complexity: bifurcation phenomena subject to model uncertainty, complex behavior including periodic/quasi-periodic orbits as well as chaotic orbits, and network complexity emerging from dynamical interactions between subsystems. Analysis and Control of Complex Dynamical Systems offers a valuable resource for mathematicians, physicists, and biophysicists, as well as for researchers in nonlinear science and control engineering, allowing them to develop a better fundamental understanding of the analysis and control synthesis of such complex systems.
Biological systems are inherently stochastic and uncertain. Thus, research in bioinformatics, biomedical engineering and computational biology has to deal with a large amount of uncertainties. Fuzzy logic has shown to be a powerful tool in capturing different uncertainties in engineering systems. In recent years, fuzzy logic based modeling and analysis approaches are also becoming popular in analyzing biological data and modeling biological systems. Numerous research and application results have been reported that demonstrated the effectiveness of fuzzy logic in solving a wide range of biological problems found in bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, and computational biology. Contributed by leading experts world-wide, this edited book contains 16 chapters presenting representative research results on the application of fuzzy systems to genome sequence assembly, gene expression analysis, promoter analysis, cis-regulation logic analysis and synthesis, reconstruction of genetic and cellular networks, as well as biomedical problems, such as medical image processing, electrocardiogram data classification and anesthesia monitoring and control. This volume is a valuable reference for researchers, practitioners, as well as graduate students working in the field of bioinformatics, biomedical engineering and computational biology.
An introduction to the quantitative modeling of biological processes, presenting modeling approaches, methodology, practical algorithms, software tools, and examples of current research. The quantitative modeling of biological processes promises to expand biological research from a science of observation and discovery to one of rigorous prediction and quantitative analysis. The rapidly growing field of quantitative biology seeks to use biology's emerging technological and computational capabilities to model biological processes. This textbook offers an introduction to the theory, methods, and tools of quantitative biology. The book first introduces the foundations of biological modeling, focusing on some of the most widely used formalisms. It then presents essential methodology for model-guided analyses of biological data, covering such methods as network reconstruction, uncertainty quantification, and experimental design; practical algorithms and software packages for modeling biological systems; and specific examples of current quantitative biology research and related specialized methods. Most chapters offer problems, progressing from simple to complex, that test the reader's mastery of such key techniques as deterministic and stochastic simulations and data analysis. Many chapters include snippets of code that can be used to recreate analyses and generate figures related to the text. Examples are presented in the three popular computing languages: Matlab, R, and Python. A variety of online resources supplement the the text. The editors are long-time organizers of the Annual q-bio Summer School, which was founded in 2007. Through the school, the editors have helped to train more than 400 visiting students in Los Alamos, NM, Santa Fe, NM, San Diego, CA, Albuquerque, NM, and Fort Collins, CO. This book is inspired by the school's curricula, and most of the contributors have participated in the school as students, lecturers, or both. Contributors John H. Abel, Roberto Bertolusso, Daniela Besozzi, Michael L. Blinov, Clive G. Bowsher, Fiona A. Chandra, Paolo Cazzaniga, Bryan C. Daniels, Bernie J. Daigle, Jr., Maciej Dobrzynski, Jonathan P. Doye, Brian Drawert, Sean Fancer, Gareth W. Fearnley, Dirk Fey, Zachary Fox, Ramon Grima, Andreas Hellander, Stefan Hellander, David Hofmann, Damian Hernandez, William S. Hlavacek, Jianjun Huang, Tomasz Jetka, Dongya Jia, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Boris N. Kholodenko, Markek Kimmel, Michał Komorowski, Ganhui Lan, Heeseob Lee, Herbert Levine, Leslie M Loew, Jason G. Lomnitz, Ard A. Louis, Grant Lythe, Carmen Molina-París, Ion I. Moraru, Andrew Mugler, Brian Munsky, Joe Natale, Ilya Nemenman, Karol Nienałtowski, Marco S. Nobile, Maria Nowicka, Sarah Olson, Alan S. Perelson, Linda R. Petzold, Sreenivasan Ponnambalam, Arya Pourzanjani, Ruy M. Ribeiro, William Raymond, William Raymond, Herbert M. Sauro, Michael A. Savageau, Abhyudai Singh, James C. Schaff, Boris M. Slepchenko, Thomas R. Sokolowski, Petr Šulc, Andrea Tangherloni, Pieter Rein ten Wolde, Philipp Thomas, Karen Tkach Tuzman, Lev S. Tsimring, Dan Vasilescu, Margaritis Voliotis, Lisa Weber
Cellular automata make up a class of completely discrete dynamical systems, which have became a core subject in the sciences of complexity due to their conceptual simplicity, easiness of implementation for computer simulation, and their ability to exhibit a wide variety of amazingly complex behavior. The feature of simplicity behind complexity of cellular automata has attracted the researchers' attention from a wide range of divergent fields of study of science, which extend from the exact disciplines of mathematical physics up to the social ones, and beyond. Numerous complex systems containing many discrete elements with local interactions have been and are being conveniently modelled as cellular automata. In this book, the versatility of cellular automata as models for a wide diversity of complex systems is underlined through the study of a number of outstanding problems using these innovative techniques for modelling and simulation.
This book contributes to better understand how lifestyle modulations can effectively halt the emergence and progression of human diseases. The book will allow the reader to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which the environment interferes with the bio-molecular regulatory processes underlying the emergence and progression of complex diseases, such as cancer. Focusing on key and early cellular bio-molecular events giving rise to the emergence of degenerative chronic disease, it builds on previous experience on the development of multi-cellular organisms, to propose a mathematical and computer based framework that allows the reader to analyze the complex interplay between bio-molecular processes and the (micro)-environment from an integrative, mechanistic, quantitative and dynamical perspective. Taking the wealth of empirical evidence that exists it will show how to build and analyze models of core regulatory networks involved in the emergence and progression of chronic degenerative diseases, using a bottom-up approach.
