Mathematical methods in biology and neurobiology

Over the years, the mathematical approach to biology and neurobiology has shifted from more model oriented to more data oriented methods.

I shall describe this development.

Dynamical system models aim at describing the physical dynamics in biological systems in detail, Nonlinear and stochastic mechanisms can generate very rich dynamical behavior.

Network models instead focus on the underlying interaction structure, and methods should robustly extract qualitative information even if the data are large, heterogeneous and noisy or perturbed.

In contrast, information theoretical approaches are concerned with the function rather than the structure of a system.

Methods from topological or geometric data analysis only utilize distance relations between data points.

Date and time info
Friday, 14.00