Introduction to Systems Biology (2V)

Lecturers

Jun.-Prof. Dr. N. Radde

Mr. Dr.-Ing. Michael Ederer

Assistant

Patrick Weber

Time and place (2h lecture + 2h exercise):

First meeting: Thursday, October 18, 2012

Tuesday 11:30 - 13:00, V9.12
Thursday 15:45 - 17:15, V9.12

All online material is provided in the ILIAS System, follow the link ilias3.uni-stuttgart.de/. You need an email address from the University of Stuttgart to register. Please contact the lecturer to get the course password.

Additional Information

Course description

Dramatic advances in proteomics, genomics, and measurement technologies such as DNA arrays have lead to a significantly increased knowledge about biological organisms. Classical and molecular biology have contributed to identify numerous individual genes and proteins, as well as other cellular components, and their specific functions. However, by now it has become clear that understanding biological organisms is not possible by simply collecting information about all involved components. Rather, a holistic understanding of biological organisms requires considering all involved components and the interactions among them, since those are ultimately responsible for an organism’s function. Systems biology aims to obtain a holistic understanding of biological systems such as a single cell, an organ or even a whole living organism, by combining approaches from system sciences, life sciences, and information sciences.
An exciting and constantly active field of research, systems biology integrates experimental data and mathematical modeling, knowledge and system analysis, to gain intuition into the mechanisms and dynamics of biological systems. It is expected that the insights obtained using methods from systems biology will lead to significant advances in various fields such as medicine and biochemical engineering. Systems biology, often also called “the sciences of the 21st century”, is an interdisciplinary challenge for biologists, computer scientists, system theoreticians, and physicians.
The main objective of this course is to give an introduction to systems biology, covering aspects from biology, systems theory, and some of the databases/tools available. The course is designed for people interested in the fusion of systems, life, and information sciences. One of the goals is to give a clear insight into the modeling and analysis methods typically used to study biological systems, including metabolism, signal transduction and genetic networks. Where necessary, a review of the biological basics is given. Topics to be covered include: Modeling regulatory and metabolic networks with chemical reaction kinetics Flux balance analysis Stochastic modeling approaches for biological networks Signal transduction networks Sensitivity analysis This lecture addresses diploma students of technical cybernetics with 'Anwendungsfach Systembiologie', students of biochemical engineering/bioprocess engineering, and interested students of technical biology. The course is tentatively given in English.