Principles Of Biological Regulation

Principles of Biological Regulation: An Introduction to Feedback Systems presents some understanding of control, regulatory, and feedback mechanisms in biological systems. This book discusses concepts related to the dynamic behavior of both individual biological processes and systems of processes that make up an organism. Comprised of 10 chapters, the book also describes the characteristics of biological feedback systems, focusing on the physical concepts. After briefly dealing with involved regulatory processes in biological systems, the book goes on discussing the flow or transport of material through a series of processes in the steady-state. Next chapter uses superposition principle to explain the changes that biological systems undergo following a disturbance or under dynamic behavior. The subsequent chapters cover the fundamental principles of negative biological feedback and to the effects it produces both under steady-state and dynamic behavior. Other chapters describe the effect of sinusoid signals on biological processes and present some stability criteria applied to technological systems and also their value in the study of homeostatic processes. The book also discusses some aspects of homeostats that seem to distinguish them from technological feedback systems. These features include not only the components themselves and their organization, but also the experimental problems involved in their study. The concluding chapters describe nonlinear behavior with great relevance to homeostatic systems and rate processes (production or destruction) for which the roles of stimulus and initial conditions are different. Mathematical relations developed from the conservation of mass and the mass action for chemical reactions are also presented. The book is an invaluable resource for life scientists and researchers.

Thorough and accessible, this book presents the design principles of biological systems, and highlights the recurring circuit elements that make up biological networks. It provides a simple mathematical framework which can be used to understand and even design biological circuits. The textavoids specialist terms, focusing instead on several well-studied biological systems that concisely demonstrate key principles. An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits builds a solid foundation for the intuitive understanding of general principles. It encourages the reader to ask why a system is designed in a particular way and then proceeds to answer with simplified models.

With the dramatic growth in our knowledge of hormone action and the mechanisms of cell regulation, the need for an up-to-date broad-ranging survey of these processes has become pressing. In Principles of Molecular Regulation, P. Michael Conn and Anthony Means have successfully assembled a panel of leading investigators to provide an integrated review of the key areas-membrane receptor-initiated cell signaling and nuclear receptor-initiated gene regulation. Chosen for the excellence of their research as well as their demonstrated writing skills, these distinguished authors illuminate the molecular machinery underlying the regulatory processes of cells. In addition to their comprehensive review of the signaling mechanisms involving cell surface receptors, nuclear receptors, and ion channels, they detail the roles of calcium, lipids, cyclic AMP, protein kinases, and protein phosphatases. They also discuss the molecular regulation of cell proliferation and death, as well as the impact of new technologies on rational drug discovery. Capturing the excitement now present at this vibrant union of molecular biology, cell biology, and endocrinology, Principles of Molecular Regulation constitutes a major new resource for understanding the many and complex elements of biological regulation. Its up-to-date critical synthesis is certain to prove of high value to all basic and clinical investigators working with these processes today.

The Principles of Biology sequence (BI 211, 212 and 213) introduces biology as a scientific discipline for students planning to major in biology and other science disciplines. Laboratories and classroom activities introduce techniques used to study biological processes and provide opportunities for students to develop their ability to conduct research.

Praise for the first edition: ... superb, beautifully written and organized work that takes an engineering approach to systems biology. Alon provides nicely written appendices to explain the basic mathematical and biological concepts clearly and succinctly without interfering with the main text. He starts with a mathematical description of transcriptional activation and then describes some basic transcription-network motifs (patterns) that can be combined to form larger networks. – Nature [This text deserves] serious attention from any quantitative scientist who hopes to learn about modern biology ... It assumes no prior knowledge of or even interest in biology ... One final aspect that must be mentioned is the wonderful set of exercises that accompany each chapter. ... Alon’s book should become a standard part of the training of graduate students. – Physics Today Written for students and researchers, the second edition of this best-selling textbook continues to offer a clear presentation of design principles that govern the structure and behavior of biological systems. It highlights simple, recurring circuit elements that make up the regulation of cells and tissues. Rigorously classroom-tested, this edition includes new chapters on exciting advances made in the last decade. Features: Includes seven new chapters The new edition has 189 exercises, the previous edition had 66 Offers new examples relevant to human physiology and disease

This text is designed for a first course in biological mass transport, and the material in it is presented at a level that is appropriate to advanced undergraduates or early graduate level students. Its orientation is somewhat more physical and mathematical than a biology or standard physiology text, reflecting its origins in a transport course that I teach to undergraduate (and occasional graduate) biomedical engineering students in the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins. The audience for my cours- and presumably for this text - also includes chemical engineering undergraduates concentrating in biotechnology, and graduate students in biophysics. The organization of this book differs from most texts that at tempt to present an engineering approach to biological transport. What distinguishes biological transport from other mass transfer processes is the fact that biological transport is biological. Thus, we do not start with the engineering principles of mass transport (which are well presented elsewhere) and then seek biological ap plications of these principles; rather, we begin with the biological processes themselves, and then develop the tools that are needed to describe them. As a result, more physiology is presented in this text than is often found in books dealing with engineering applica tions in the life sciences.