Introduction to Mathematical Models in Computational Biology

Catalog description

This course is designed to introduce students to the use of mathematical models in biology as well as some more recent topics in computational biology. Mathematical techniques will involve difference equations and dynamical systems theory, ordinary differential equations and some partial differential equations. These techinques will be applied in the study of many biological applications such as: (i) Difference Equations: population dynamics, red blood cell production, population genetics; (ii) Ordinary Differential Equations: predator/prey models, Lotka/Volterra model, modeling the evolution of the genome, heart beat model/cycle, tranmission dynamics of HIV and gonorrhea; (iii) Partial Differential Equations: tumor growth, modeling evolution of the genome, pattern formation. Prerequisites: APMA 0330 and 0340 .