1. Physics of polymers, macromolecular crowding, depletion interactions 2. Physics of membranes 3. DNA and RNA - Accuracy of biological information processing: proofreading schemes 4. Proteins as molecular machines - Enzymes - Cooperative interactions - Molecular motors 5. Stochastic phenomena in cells - How do transcription factors find their targets 6. Genetic networks - Basics of control theory (feedback and feed-forward motifs) - Noise in genetic networks 8. Elements of ecology in few-species systems 9. Elements of development
Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to: [1] Get a bird's eye view of a wide variety of topics in Biology from a quantitative viewpoint, ranging from Molecular to Systems Biology scales. [2] Explore further the literature on the various topics to be covered.