Title: A computer algebra approach to dynamic network models of biological
systems

Abstract:

Increasingly, research in many areas of biology focuses on the study of whole
systems, beyond the analysis of their parts.  In many cases this has been made
possible by recent technological advances that allow experimental measurements
at the systems level.  Several computational frameworks have been proposed to
model and simulate biological systems based on such large-scale measurements.
This talk introduces the concept of dynamic networks over finite fields.
These can be described via polynomial functions.   Several examples of
biological networks will be presented that can be  analyzed in this framework,
using computational and conceptual tools from computational algebra and
algebraic geometry.  In particular, models of gene regulatory networks, and
the problem of reverse-engineering of dynamics in computational immunology can
be treated with methods from computer algebra.