16 October 2020
John Tyson
University Distinguished Professor of Biological Science, Emeritus
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
The discipline of molecular systems biology rests on three fundamental scientific approaches: quantitative experimental characterization of the complex molecular mechanisms underlying cell physiology, computational methods to capture this information and make it available and interpretable to life scientists, and mathematical modeling to connect the underlying mechanisms with the observable behavior of cells. The history of these three methodologies traces back 40 years and more. In this talk I will discuss some of the early history of the discipline, with a focus on mathematical modeling, as I experienced it since starting my research in this field in the early 1970s. I hope my view of some of the foundational ideas of molecular systems biology will prompt considerable feedback, expansion and correction from the audience.