MCDB108C

Models of Biochemical and Cellular Systems. Introductory systems-biology approach to model the design and the function of biological systems. Students will develop an intuition about physical concepts that are fundamental to discuss how biological organisms acquire and process information from the environment. Those concepts and tools will cover probabilities and basic dynamical systems theory. Students will build models of processes of increasing complexity, ranging from viral dynamics, bacterial resistance to drugs, the maintenance of homeostatic equilibrium (trp operon), biological oscillators (mitotic clock) and genetic switches underlying cellular decisions (bacteriophage lambda and lac operon).