Modeling and Network Organization

The use of mathematical modeling and analysis of networks has a long history in biological research. Perhaps the best-known early example of insightful modeling is the work of Hodgkin and Huxley in 1952 describing how sodium and potassium ion channels could function together to produce the membrane action potential in neurons (Hodgkin and Huxley, 1952). For several decades, models and theory were mostly the domain of applied mathematicians, physical scientists and engineers, many of whom worked rather independently of experimental science and the work remained somewhat obscure and theoretical. With the broad availability of computers and IT infrastructure that has emerged in the last several decades, the use of modeling and theory in biological research has expanded greatly, as has the size of the models being developed.