Course Identification

Modeling Biology
20253162

Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Dr. Eyal Karzbrun, Dr. Yaron Antebi
David Zingerman, Yasmin L Bohak

Course Schedule and Location

2025
Second Semester
Thursday, 09:15 - 11:00, WSoS, Rm C
Tuesday, 14:15 - 15:00, WSoS, Rm C

Tutorials
Tuesday, 15:00 - 16:00, WSoS, Rm C
25/03/2025
03/07/2025
14

Field of Study, Course Type and Credit Points

Life Sciences: Lecture; 3.00 points
Physical Sciences: 3.00 points
Chemical Sciences: 3.00 points
Mathematics and Computer Science: 3.00 points

Comments

This course will be held by frontal learning.

Prerequisites

No

Restrictions

50

Language of Instruction

English

Attendance and participation

Required in at least 80% of the lectures

Grade Type

Numerical (out of 100)

Grade Breakdown (in %)

50%
50%

Evaluation Type

Final assignment

Scheduled date 1

N/A
N/A
-
N/A

Estimated Weekly Independent Workload (in hours)

2

Syllabus

The course will consist of four topics in biological models. Each topic will introduce a biological problem, and a quantitative framework, and demonstrate how the model-based approach results in new insights into biological phenomena.

  • Dynamical Models
  1. Mysteries of signaling pathways regulations

  2. Differential equations models

  3. Combinatorics in ligand-receptor systems

  • Information Theory
  1. Morphogens and patterning

  2. Information theory basics

  3. Information content of morphogenetic proteins

  • Vertex Models
  1. Morphogenesis of epithelial tissues

  2. The basics of vertex models

  3. Modeling tissue folding and brain gyrification

  • Fluid Mechanics
  1. Multicellular flows in embryonic development

  2. Fundamentals of fluid mechanics

  3. Models of cellular movements during embryo gastrulation

Learning Outcomes

Upon successfully completing this course, students should be able to apply diverse mathematical modeling tools to study key problems in biology.

Reading List

N/A

Website

N/A