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CellMath:

Mathematics and Computation for the Systems Biology of Cells

This project is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), research program "Computational Life Sciences". Granted proposal [ps-file | pdf-file]

Aim

The aim of the project is to develop, implement, and validate mathematical and computational techniques for the systems biology of the cell. Biologists and mathematicians together will formulate realistic mathematical models of metabolic and regulatory networks including intrinsic spatial non-homogeneity. Depending on the cellular phenomenon considered, models and methods of appropriate temporal and spatial scales will be developed and can then be applied: models in the form of ordinary differential equations and methods for system reduction; multi-adaptive computational methods for partial differential equations (PDEs) for moderate spatial and temporal variability within a cell or an organelle; particle models describing the interaction of individual molecules and computational methods for the evaluation of the dynamic behavior; and methods for integration of these different approaches into a single simulation.

The planned outcome of the project are computational and mathematical algorithms, implemented in auto-adaptive computational models, and simulation results for the functioning of living cells.

Research focus

  1. system reduction techniques for ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of the type that arises in chemical networks (simplification and modularization in the chemical `dimension')
  2. particle-based methods for modelling of features with high spatial variability or low number of molecules
  3. multi-adaptive numerical methods for the efficient solving of reaction-diffusion PDEs with varying spatial and temporal scales, and space dependent chemical schemes
  4. methods that allow 1-3 to be integrated into a single simulation, in order to take advantage of simplification and modularization wherever and whenever possible

Subprojects