Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Introduction to Systems Biology
Yusuke Himeoka, Assistant Professor, Universal Biology Institute
| Tetsuo Hatakeyama and Yusuke Himeoka, "Introduction to Systems Biology" |
|
Kodansha Scientific (2023) |
When I tell people outside the university that I am studying biology using mathematical formulas, they are usually surprised. Or rather, they give me a look that says, "I don't understand what you are talking about. I guess that "biology" and "mathematics/physics" are far away from each other. However, if you read this book, you will realize how important mathematics and physics are for a deep and quantitative understanding of biological phenomena.
Systems biology is a field that pursues how various biological functions emerge from their interactions and how the mysterious state of "living" emerges, despite the fact that each of the elements that make up an organism is only a molecule.
In order to understand such phenomena, which are called "emergent phenomena," we need tools to quantitatively describe interacting systems, such as differential equations and statistical physics. This book introduces a wide range of topics in systems biology, such as error calibration of life, mechanisms of environmental sensing, prediction of metabolic states, and mathematics of biological evolution, while introducing necessary mathematics as needed, using only differential and integral calculus and linear algebra as prerequisite knowledge.
Systems biology is a very young field, and this book should bring you a few steps closer to the cutting edge of research. If you are more ambitious, you may wish to gain research experience in a university-wide seminar at the Universal Biology Institute, or take "Advanced Biophysics" or "Universal Biology" courses in the Faculty of Science.
Published in Faculty of Science News, July 2024