This book explains the state-of-the-art algorithms used to simulate biological dynamics. Each technique is theoretically introduced and applied to a set of modeling cases. Starting from basic simulation algorithms, the book also introduces more advanced techniques that support delays, diffusion in space, or that are based on hybrid simulation strategies. This is a valuable self-contained resource for graduate students and practitioners in computer science, biology and bioinformatics. An appendix covers the mathematical background, and the authors include further reading sections in each chapter.

A practice-oriented survey of techniques for computational modeling and simulation suitable for a broad range of biological problems. There are many excellent computational biology resources now available for learning about methods that have been developed to address specific biological systems, but comparatively little attention has been paid to training aspiring computational biologists to handle new and unanticipated problems. This text is intended to fill that gap by teaching students how to reason about developing formal mathematical models of biological systems that are amenable to computational analysis. It collects in one place a selection of broadly useful models, algorithms, and theoretical analysis tools normally found scattered among many other disciplines. It thereby gives the aspiring student a bag of tricks that will serve him or her well in modeling problems drawn from numerous subfields of biology. These techniques are taught from the perspective of what the practitioner needs to know to use them effectively, supplemented with references for further reading on more advanced use of each method covered. The text, which grew out of a class taught at Carnegie Mellon University, covers models for optimization, simulation and sampling, and parameter tuning. These topics provide a general framework for learning how to formulate mathematical models of biological systems, what techniques are available to work with these models, and how to fit the models to particular systems. Their application is illustrated by many examples drawn from a variety of biological disciplines and several extended case studies that show how the methods described have been applied to real problems in biology.

"This book presents new techniques that have resulted from the application of computer science methods to the organization and interpretation of biological data, covering three subject areas: bioinformatics, computational biology, and computational systems biology"--

This book is intended for students of computational systems biology with only a limited background in mathematics. Typical books on systems biology merely mention algorithmic approaches, but without offering a deeper understanding. On the other hand, mathematical books are typically unreadable for computational biologists. The authors of the present book have worked hard to fill this gap. The result is not a book on systems biology, but on computational methods in systems biology. This book originated from courses taught by the authors at Freie Universität Berlin. The guiding idea of the courses was to convey those mathematical insights that are indispensable for systems biology, teaching the necessary mathematical prerequisites by means of many illustrative examples and without any theorems. The three chapters cover the mathematical modelling of biochemical and physiological processes, numerical simulation of the dynamics of biological networks and identification of model parameters by means of comparisons with real data. Throughout the text, the strengths and weaknesses of numerical algorithms with respect to various systems biological issues are discussed. Web addresses for downloading the corresponding software are also included.

Emerging Trends in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, and Systems Biology discusses the latest developments in all aspects of computational biology, bioinformatics, and systems biology and the application of data-analytics and algorithms, mathematical modeling, and simu- lation techniques. • Discusses the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling, and computational simulation techniques to the study of biological and behavioral systems, including applications in cancer research, computational intelligence and drug design, high-performance computing, and biology, as well as cloud and grid computing for the storage and access of big data sets. • Presents a systematic approach for storing, retrieving, organizing, and analyzing biological data using software tools with applications to general principles of DNA/RNA structure, bioinformatics and applications, genomes, protein structure, and modeling and classification, as well as microarray analysis. • Provides a systems biology perspective, including general guidelines and techniques for obtaining, integrating, and analyzing complex data sets from multiple experimental sources using computational tools and software. Topics covered include phenomics, genomics, epigenomics/epigenetics, metabolomics, cell cycle and checkpoint control, and systems biology and vaccination research. • Explains how to effectively harness the power of Big Data tools when data sets are so large and complex that it is difficult to process them using conventional database management systems or traditional data processing applications. - Discusses the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to the study of biological and behavioral systems. - Presents a systematic approach for storing, retrieving, organizing and analyzing biological data using software tools with applications. - Provides a systems biology perspective including general guidelines and techniques for obtaining, integrating and analyzing complex data sets from multiple experimental sources using computational tools and software.

This issue on Computational Models for Cell Processes is based on a workshop that took place in Turku, Finland, May 2008. The papers span a mix of approaches to systems biology, ranging from quantitative techniques to computing paradigms inspired by biology.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Computational Systems Biology is devoted to inter- and multidisciplinary research in the fields of computer science and life sciences and supports a paradigmatic shift in the techniques from computer and information science to cope with the new challenges arising from the systems oriented point of view of biological phenomena. This, the 13th Transactions on Computational Systems Biology volume, guest edited by Ralph-Johan Back, Ion Petre, and Erik de Vink, focuses on Computational Models for Cell Processes and features a number of carefully selected and enhanced contributions initially presented at the CompMod workshop, which took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in November 2009. From different points of view and following various approaches, the papers cover a wide range of topics in systems biology, addressing the dynamics and the computational principles of this emerging field.