Systems biology

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

This course provides an introduction to cellular and population-level systems biology with an emphasis on synthetic biology, modeling of genetic networks, cell-cell interactions, and evolutionary dynamics. Cellular systems include genetic switches and oscillators, network motifs, genetic network evolution, and cellular decision-making. Population-level systems include models of pattern formation, cell-cell communication, and evolutionary systems biology.

Given the wide range of backgrounds among students in this class we will try to avoid unnecessary jargon and mathematics. However, it will be very helpful if you are comfortable with the material in Introductory Biology 7.012, Differential Equations 18.03, and Probability 18.05. In addition, each weekly problem set will have a computational problem, so prior experience with a computational package such as MATLAB®, Mathematica®, or Python is expected. The "officially supported" package will be Python (sample code, etc), but problems can be done in any language.

Alon, Uri. An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits. Chapman & Hall / CRC, 2006. ISBN: 9781584886426. [Preview with Google Books]

Nowak, M. A. Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life. Belknap Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780674023383. [Preview with Google Books]

Alberts, Bruce. Essential Cell Biology. Garland Science, 2009. ISBN: 9780815341291.

Strogatz, Steven H. Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering. Westview Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780813349107. [Preview with Google Books]

To facilitate interactions during class between students, we will have short required questions about the reading that will be due before class.

The course will have weekly problem sets (due at the end of each week), two midterms, and a final. The grading breakdown is as follows:

Don't show me this again

This is one of over 2,200 courses on OCW. Find materials for this course in the pages linked along the left.

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free & open publication of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.

No enrollment or registration. Freely browse and use OCW materials at your own pace. There's no signup, and no start or end dates.

Knowledge is your reward. Use OCW to guide your own life-long learning, or to teach others. We don't offer credit or certification for using OCW.

Made for sharing. Download files for later. Send to friends and colleagues. Modify, remix, and reuse (just remember to cite OCW as the source.)

Learn more at Get Started with MIT OpenCourseWare