Teacher: Andrew Murray
Tutors: Ming Ni and Leila Perie

Course Philosophy - What is systems biology? Our definition is studying how little things come together to produce big things that have interesting properties that none of the little things exhibit in isolation, with an emphasis on understanding the general principles behind these transformations. This includes understanding how a linear chain of amino acids becomes a protein with a specific structure and function, how a group of proteins interact with each other to produce devices for receiving information, processing it, and inducing cellular responses (such as biological clocks), and how the accumulation of mutations leads to the evolution of such sophisticated machines.
The course will use several examples (the Lac operon, decisions in the development of flies and bacteria, clocks, chromosome segregation, evolution, and sex) to explore the existence of general principles that explain the function and evolution of cells and their components. By concentrating on concepts, we hope to make the course accessible both to students from physics and mathematics whose background in biology is weak and to biology students with little exposure to mathematics. The ancestral version of this class included basic instruction in computer programming, but within the format of the AIV/FdV this material will be covered in other classes and you will be encouraged to use these skills to improve your understanding of the material presented in this class.

Sessions have been recorded and you can watch them on our vimeo channel :