Modeling Biomolecular Networks in Cells

Book excerpt: Modeling Biomolecular Networks in Cells shows how the interaction between the molecular components of basic living organisms can be modelled mathematically and the models used to create artificial biological entities within cells. Such forward engineering is a difficult task but the nonlinear dynamical methods espoused in this book simplify the biology so that it can be successfully understood and the synthesis of simple biological oscillators and rhythm-generators made feasible. Such simple units can then be co-ordinated using intercellular signal biomolecules. The formation of such man-made multicellular networks with a view to the production of biosensors, logic gates, new forms of integrated circuitry based on "gene-chips" and even biological computers is an important step in the design of faster and more flexible "electronics". The book also provides theoretical frameworks and tools with which to analyze the nonlinear dynamical phenomena which arise from the connection of building units in a biomolecular network.