Foundations of Systems Biology (eBook)

This easy-to-follow text serves as a valuable introduction to contemporary cell biology and offers insight into the key research directions in the field. It begins with an overview of existing tools for finding, designing and investigating metabolic, genetic, signalling and other network databases. It then introduces Cell Illustrator 3.0, a software tool for biological pathway modelling and simulation. In-depth discussion is given to how this tool can be used for creating, analysing and simulating models, explicating and testing current understanding of basic biological processes.
Features: Provides many learning aids, such as detailed examples throughout; exercises and solutions; Discusses the computational functionalities required for Systems Biology.
Written for undergraduates this reader-friendly introduction to the field of Systems Biology offers insight and teaches sound expertise in the subject.

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Today, as hundreds of genomes have been sequenced and thousands of proteins and more than ten thousand metabolites have been identi?ed, navigating safely through this wealth of information without getting completely lost has become crucial for research in, and teaching of, molecular biology. Consequently, a considerable number of tools have been developed and put on the market in the last two decades that describe the multitude of potential/putative interactions between genes, proteins, metabolites, and other biologically relevant compounds in terms of metabolic, genetic, signaling, and other networks, their aim being to support all sorts of explorations through bio-data bases currently called Systems Biology. As a result, navigating safely through this wealth of information-processing tools has become equally crucial for successful work in molecular biology. To help perform such navigation tasks successfully, this book starts by providing an extremely useful overview of existing tools for ?nding (or designing) and inv- tigating metabolic, genetic, signaling, and other network databases, addressing also user-relevant practical questions like * Is the database viewable through a web browser? * Is there a licensing fee? * What is the data type (metabolic, gene regulatory, signaling, etc. )? * Is the database developed/maintained by a curator or a computer? * Is there any software for editing pathways? * Is it possible to simulate the pathway? It then goes on to introduce a speci?c such tool, that is, the fabulous "e;Cell - lustrator 3. 0"e; tool developed by the authors.