Complex Biological Systems (formerly Complex Adaptive Systems)
(M.Sc. in Bioinformatics, University of Athens)

1. At a theoretical level, the course seeks to present to the students a global view of the methods and techniques of the interdisciplinary field of complex adaptive systems, as applied to the dynamic modelling and the theoretical investigation of a wealth of biological problems at all levels of analysis. Moreover, it aims to offer to the students a theoretical background that will allow the identification and discovery of new problems that lend themselves to this kind of modelling and study.

2. At a practical level, the course seeks to have the students experiment with some pre-existing systems and/or model some complex dynamical phenomena, so as to systematically investigate and evaluate alternative models and corresponding results as far as their validity is concerned as well as from a methodological point of view.

Instructor

• Introduction
  Fundamental concepts, principles and definitions, Demos, Cellular automata, Fractals
• History, roots, topics
  Cybernetics, Artificial intelligence, Artificial life, Methodology
• Behavior
  Navigation, control and behavioral regulation, Motivational control, Learning
• Populations
  Behavioral ecologies, Social insects, Flocks and groups, Communication
• Molecules
  Artificial chemistries, Genetic regulation models, Boolean networks, Modelling of metabolic pathways
• Development
  Morphogenesis, production grammars and L-systems, Generalized developmental systems, Stabilization, equilibrium, Communication, dynamics and pathology
• Evolution
  Techniques, Evolutionary phenomena in populations, Evolutionary games
• Dynamics
  Fundamental concepts, Description of phenomena and systems as dynamical systems, Distributed dynamics, Emergence, Simulation and visualization