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University of Oxford Interdisciplinary
Seminar
Conceptual Foundations of Systems Biology
Denis Noble and Eric Werner
An informal series of interdisciplinary seminars.
Fridays, 1 pm, Massey Room, Balliol
College
"Systems Biology" is the new buzz word. But is it just
buzz, or is there substance? What does it mean? What are its boundaries?
How revolutionary are its concepts? Join a group of biologists,
computer scientists and philosophers in investigating these questions.
This will be a truly interdisciplinary seminar where students and
professors from areas such as biology, chemistry, computer science,
mathematics, philosophy and physics are encouraged to join. The
idea is to look at the fundamental concepts and problems that underlie
the effort to formalize, model and simulate living systems. At first
we will be motivated by Denis Noble’s recent book, “The
Music of Life”. A counterpoint will be Eric Davidson’s
views of development in "The
Regulatory Genome". In some weeks a student or professor
will start with an introduction to a topic. After that there will
be open discussion of the topic of interest. Readings will serve
as motivators for discussion of fundamental ideas.
Topics include:
- Complexity of genomes and organisms
- Modularity and evolution
- The Central Dogma, emergence, integrative biology and downward
causation
- Genomic networks in developmental biology
- Interactionism versus determinism
- Theories of communication, cell signaling and development
- The limits of mathematics
- Higher level mental phenomena (consciousness)
Chairpersons: Denis Noble (physiology) and Eric Werner (Cellnomica
and physiology)
Contributors: Tom Melham (computing), Carl Seger (Intel and computing),
Annamaria Carusi (philosophy and computing)
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(©
Eric Werner) 
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