Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Concentration and crowding effects on protein stability from a coarse-grained model
- 2 Observations on the mechanics of a molecular bond under force
- 3 Statistical thermodynamics of cell–matrix interactions
- 4 Potential landscape theory of cellular networks
- 5 Modeling gene regulatory networks for cell fate specification
- 6 Structural and dynamical properties of cellular and regulatory networks
- 7 Statistical mechanics of the immune response to vaccines
- Index
- Plate section
6 - Structural and dynamical properties of cellular and regulatory networks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Concentration and crowding effects on protein stability from a coarse-grained model
- 2 Observations on the mechanics of a molecular bond under force
- 3 Statistical thermodynamics of cell–matrix interactions
- 4 Potential landscape theory of cellular networks
- 5 Modeling gene regulatory networks for cell fate specification
- 6 Structural and dynamical properties of cellular and regulatory networks
- 7 Statistical mechanics of the immune response to vaccines
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Introduction
Systems that can be mapped as networks are all around us. Recently, scientists have started to reconsider the traditional reductionism viewpoint that has driven science ever since. The accumulated evidence that systems as complex as a cell cannot be fully understood by studying only their isolated constituents, but that rather most biological characteristics and behaviors are related to complex interactions of many cellular constituents, has given rise to the birth of a new movement of interest and research in the study of complex networks, i.e., networks whose structure is irregular, complex, and dynamically evolving in time, with the main focus moving from the analysis of small networks to that of systems with thousands or millions of nodes, and with a renewed attention to the properties of networks of dynamical units. This flurry of activity has seen the physicists' and biologists' communities among the principal actors, and has been certainly induced by the increased computing powers and by the possibility to study the properties of a wealth of large databases of real networks. The regulatory and cellular networks that will be the subject of study in this chapter have been among the most studied networks, and the field has benefited from many important contributions. The expectancy is that understanding and modeling the structure of a regulatory network would lead to better comprehend its dynamical and functional behavior.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Statistical Mechanics of Cellular Systems and Processes , pp. 155 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009