Systems Biology

This book provides an entry point into Systems Biology for researchers in genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, microbiology and biomedical science to understand the key concepts to expanding their work. Chapters organized around broader themes of Organelles and Organisms, Systems Properties of Biological Processes, Cellular Networks, and Systems Biology and Disease discuss the development of concepts, the current applications, and the future prospects. Emphasis is placed on concepts and insights into the multi-disciplinary nature of the field as well as the importance of systems biology in human biological research. Technology, being an extremely important aspect of scientific progress overall, and in the creation of new fields in particular, is discussed in 'boxes' within each chapter to relate to appropriate topics. 2013 Honorable Mention for Single Volume Reference in Science from the Association of American Publishers' PROSE Awards Emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of systems biology with contributions from leaders in a variety of disciplines Includes the latest research developments in human and animal models to assist with translational research Presents biological and computational aspects of the science side-by-side to facilitate collaboration between computational and biological 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.

The first comprehensive single-authored textbook on genome-scale models and the bottom-up approach to systems biology.

Emphasises a hands-on approach to modelling Strong emphasis on coding and software tools for systems biology Covers the entire spectrum of modelling, from static networks, to dynamic models Thoughtful exercises to test and enable student understanding of concepts Current chapters on exciting new developments like whole-cell modelling and community modelling

Throughout most of the twentieth century, the biomedical model dominated healthcare. However, the biomedical model had its critics, who proposed alternative models to replace it. Eventually, biomedicine became fragmented at its foundations with a variety of approaches to its nature and practice. Medicine's current response to this fragmentation is to combine these disparate approaches into a single system--systems medicine. In the present book, I examine the shift, during the postgenomics era, from the biomedical model to systems medicine vis-à-vis systems biology, as well as the challenges facing systems medicine's implementation in the twenty-first century. The main goal of the present book is to provide a disciplinary framework for examining the rise of systems medicine, especially in terms of the incorporation of systems biology into the biomedical model. To realize that goal, the following questions are addressed. What is a disciplinary framework? And, why is this framework important for understanding systems biology and medicine? Briefly, a disciplinary framework represents the relational structure among disparate disciplines that support and ground a discipline and its corpus. For traditional biology and medicine, that framework consists of various disciplines within the biological and biomedical sciences, including physiology, neuroscience, pathology, and epidemiology--to name a few. For the present purpose, systems biology within the last several decades is reshaping the disciplinary framework of the biological and biomedical sciences, which is also responsible for the emergence of systems medicine. In addition, the challenges facing systems medicine, especially its operationalization and implementation with respect to medical education and practice, as well as research, are also explored.

This comprehensively revised second edition of Computational Systems Biology discusses the experimental and theoretical foundations of the function of biological systems at the molecular, cellular or organismal level over temporal and spatial scales, as systems biology advances to provide clinical solutions to complex medical problems. In particular the work focuses on the engineering of biological systems and network modeling. Logical information flow aids understanding of basic building blocks of life through disease phenotypes Evolved principles gives insight into underlying organizational principles of biological organizations, and systems processes, governing functions such as adaptation or response patterns Coverage of technical tools and systems helps researchers to understand and resolve specific systems biology problems using advanced computation Multi-scale modeling on disparate scales aids researchers understanding of dependencies and constraints of spatio-temporal relationships fundamental to biological organization and function.

Epigenetics and Systems Biology highlights the need for collaboration between experiments and theoretical modeling that is required for successful application of systems biology in epigenetics studies. This book breaks down the obstacles which exist between systems biology and epigenetics researchers due to information barriers and segmented research, giving real-life examples of successful combinations of systems biology and epigenetics experiments. Each section covers one type of modeling and one set of epigenetic questions on which said models have been successfully applied. In addition, the book highlights how modeling and systems biology relate to studies of RNA, DNA, and genome instability, mechanisms of DNA damage signaling and repair, and the effect of the environment on genome stability. Presents original research in a wider perspective to reveal potential for synergies between the two fields of study Provides the latest experiments in primary literature for the modeling audience Includes chapters written by experts in systems biology and epigenetics who have vast experience studying clinical applications

This advanced textbook is tailored for an introductory course in Systems Biology and is well-suited for biologists as well as engineers and computer scientists. It comes with student-friendly reading lists and a companion website featuring a short exam prep version of the book and educational modeling programs. The text is written in an easily accessible style and includes numerous worked examples and study questions in each chapter. For this edition, a section on medical systems biology has been included.