Course Identification

The course is designed for an interdisciplinary audience, and we will help each other understand the parts that are basic for some backgrounds and new for others. For physicists/CS/Math, no previous background in biology is assumed. For biologists, the level of math is doable (we will refresh the memory of simple differential equations like dx/dt=a – b x), and some exercises will include simple programming. The emphasis is on model-building and not on sophisticated mathematical frameworks.

Biological systems are wondrous. Molecular machines process information and self-assemble into intricate structures, despite huge molecular noise, and then disassemble when their work is done. This course will provide the basic principles for understanding biological circuits, inside cells and on the level of tissues.

SYLLABUS

• Network motifs: recurring simple circuit elements that are the basic building blocks of complex biological networks
• Robustness: how circuits can work precisely despite noise in their components
• Pattern formation: How an embryo develops precise patterns despite fluctuations
• Hormone circuits: How our body maintains balance, and what goes wrong in disease
• Biological error correction and proofreading
• Evolution and optimality of biological circuits

Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1. Understand biological systems in terms of general mathematical principles that unify different systems
2. Describe biological systems using simple mathematical models, and generate new hypotheses that can be tested experimentally

U. Alon, An introduction to systems biology: design principles of biological circuits. CRC press 2006.