Biologia de Sistemas

The general goal of the Systems Biology curricular unit is to provide advanced training, competencies and skills in systems level analysis of complex biological phenomena following a holistic modeling paradigm. Students are trained in a number of topics that are central to Systems Biology

• Translation of biological mechanisms into mathematical systems.
• Implementation of simulation models in computers according to the standards currently adopted in Systems Biology.
• Bottom-up (holistic) analysis. Integration of mechanisms to infer biological function from mechanisms.
• Top-down (holistic) analysis: systems analysis to identify mechanisms from high throughput molecular biology data.

Through attending this curricular unit, students are expected to acquire critical practical skills to solve systems biology problems, namely:

• The ability to organize disparate biological information into a coherent self-consistent whole using mathematical models.
• The ability to identify important components/interactions within a complex biological system from the analysis of molecular biology data.
• The ability to disprove hypotheses and to define improved hypotheses in the process of model development.
• The ability to identify and understand the essential features of a biological system.
• The ability to simulate, predict, and optimize procedures, experiments and technologies.

This curricular unit also aims at framing these subjects within relevant biotechnological applications. Thus another important goal of this curricular unit is to provide specific training in the application of systems biology fundaments to the engineering of cell factories and processes, namely:

• Metabolic (genetic or medium) engineering,
• Synthetic biology, and
• Bioprocess engineering.