System Modeling in Cellular Biology

Research in systems biology requires the collaboration of researchers
from diverse backgrounds, including biology, computer science, mathematics,
statistics, physics, and biochemistry. These collaborations, necessary because of
the enormous breadth of background needed for research in this field, can be
hindered by differing understandings of the limitations and applicability of
techniques and concerns from different disciplines. This comprehensive introduction
and overview of system modeling in biology makes the relevant background material
from all pertinent fields accessible to researchers with different backgrounds.The
emerging area of systems level modeling in cellular biology has lacked a critical
and thorough overview. This book fills that gap. It is the first to provide the
necessary critical comparison of concepts and approaches, with an emphasis on their
possible applications. It presents key concepts and their theoretical background,
including the concepts of robustness and modularity and their exploitation to study
biological systems; the best-known modeling approaches, and their advantages and
disadvantages; lessons from the application of mathematical models to the study of
cellular biology; and available modeling tools and datasets, along with their
computational limitations.