Funded by:
Microsoft Research Cambridge
(MRL contract 2005-04)
Call for papers: Computational tools for advancing science
Dates: 2006-2007
| Institutions: |  | University of Birmingham |
Understanding biological processes, and especially how the cells interact and make decisions, is an essential step towards predictive biology and personalized medicine. Experimental biology is contributing key data towards this goal, but suffers from inherent inaccuracy of observations compounded by the natural variability of biological systems. Systems biology seeks sound scientific understanding of biological processes through a cycle of experimental research and hypothesis generation formed with the help of computational tools for in silico modelling. This proposal contributes to the predictive biology effort by adapting process calculi and the probabilistic model checking technology, and specifically the leading probabilistic model checker PRISM developed at the University of Birmingham, to the study of biological processes. This complements the traditional differential equations (ODE) modelling approaches and offers new ways to affirm or disprove scientific hypotheses.