The goal of this course is to experience and understand systems biology as a scientific process for generating hypotheses in complex and dynamic situations and networks. Through an introduction to the research and technologies of the program, students will illustrate how systems biology concepts are used to solve biological problems. This course builds on the Systems Approaches in Biology and on general background knowledge in computational biology. Background knowledge is important in probability and statistics, linear algebra, calculus, dynamical systems, and basic programming skills.

All biological interactions, whether they occur at the molecular, organismal, or ecosystem level, are part of complex dynamical systems. Understanding the behaviors of these systems is at the heart of many important challenges in biological research. In this course, we have made the opportunity to develop and study mathematical models of biological systems. Research in the field of systems biology is highly interdisciplinary. Biologists often collaborate with colleagues in physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science. Systems biology helps to answer, why biological models are useful; how they have been used in the various biological sciences; the difficulties and problems encountered in model development; and the future potential of the discipline, including its role in synthetic biology.