Background Reconstruction and applications of genome scale metabolic models have truly influenced the field of systems biology [1,2]. These models have a promising ability to describe cellular phenotypes accurately and to relate the annotated genome sequence to the physiological functions of a cell [3,4]. Gluconacetobacter has been extensively characterized and is a model system for cellulose b...

When engineering self-healing systems, inspiration can be sought from nature. Biological organisms present proven self-healing models that have been developed during millions of years of evolution. In this paper common self-healing properties found in nature are described. A programming paradigm inspired by properties of the biological cell is discussed, and a software architecture for distribu...

The melanocortin system is composed of the melanocortin peptides, adrenocorticotropic hormone and alpha-, beta-, and gamma-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, the melanocortin receptors (MCRs), and the endogenous antagonists agouti- and agouti-related protein. Melanocortin peptides exert multiple effects upon the host, including anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. Leukocytes are a sourc...

RNA processing is essential factor for synthesis of functional and structural proteins in eukaryote cells. In eukaryote organisms it will be initiated with transcription of DNA in nucleolus and terminated to mRNA translation in cytoplasm, finally mRNA degraded. Protein synthesis followed as different steps, includes 5' capping, poly adenylating, processing and transferring from nucleolus to cyt...

Systems biology aims at achieving a system-level understanding of living organisms and applying this knowledge to various fields such as synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and medicine. System-level understanding of living organisms can be derived from insight into: (i) system structure and the mechanism of biological networks such as gene regulation, protein interactions, signaling, and...

He received his B.Sc. degree in Biology (1990) from Department of Biology, University of British Columbia, Canada, also M.Sc. in Botany (1993) from Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Canada and Ph.D. in Plant Ecology (1996) from Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, England.Dr. Fraser's expertise is in grassland and wetland ecosystems, with a focus o...

In the study of the basic properties observed in the immune system and, in a broader view, in biological systems, several concepts have already been mathematically formulated or treated in an analytical perspective, such as degeneracy, robustness, noise, and bow tie architecture [1,2,3,4,5]. These properties, among others, seem to rule many aspects of the system functioning, and share among the...

Systems biology is a new field in biology that aims at system-level understanding of biological systems. While molecular biology has led to remarkable progress in our understanding of biological systems, the current focus is mainly on identification of genes and functions of their products which are components of the system. The next major challenge is to understand at the system level biologic...