This volume reviews the theory and simulation methods of stochastic kinetics by integrating historical and recent perspectives, presents applications, mostly in the context of systems biology and also in combustion theory. In recent years, due to the development in experimental techniques, such as optical imaging, single cell analysis, and fluorescence spectroscopy, biochemical kinetic data inside single living cells have increasingly been available. The emergence of systems biology brought renaissance in the application of stochastic kinetic methods.

Fifty years ago, a new approach to reaction kinetics began to emerge: one based on mathematical models of reaction kinetics, or formal reaction kinetics. Since then, there has been a rapid and accelerated development in both deterministic and stochastic kinetics, primarily because mathematicians studying differential equations and algebraic geometry have taken an interest in the nonlinear differential equations of kinetics, which are relatively simple, yet capable of depicting complex behavior such as oscillation, chaos, and pattern formation. The development of stochastic models was triggered by the fact that novel methods made it possible to measure molecules individually. Now it is high time to make the results of the last half-century available to a larger audience: students of chemistry, chemical engineering and biochemistry, not to mention applied mathematics. Based on recent papers, this book presents the most important concepts and results, together with a wealth of solved exercises. The book is accompanied by the authors’ Mathematica package, ReactionKinetics, which helps both students and scholars in their everyday work, and which can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com/ and also from the authors’ websites. Further, the large set of unsolved problems provided may serve as a springboard for individual research.

This book provides an introduction to the analysis of stochastic dynamic models in biology and medicine. The main aim is to offer a coherent set of probabilistic techniques and mathematical tools which can be used for the simulation and analysis of various biological phenomena. These tools are illustrated on a number of examples. For each example, the biological background is described, and mathematical models are developed following a unified set of principles. These models are then analyzed and, finally, the biological implications of the mathematical results are interpreted. The biological topics covered include gene expression, biochemistry, cellular regulation, and cancer biology. The book will be accessible to graduate students who have a strong background in differential equations, the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems, Markovian stochastic processes, and both discrete and continuous state spaces, and who are familiar with the basic concepts of probability theory.

An introduction to the mathematical concepts and techniques needed for the construction and analysis of models in molecular systems biology. Systems techniques are integral to current research in molecular cell biology, and system-level investigations are often accompanied by mathematical models. These models serve as working hypotheses: they help us to understand and predict the behavior of complex systems. This book offers an introduction to mathematical concepts and techniques needed for the construction and interpretation of models in molecular systems biology. It is accessible to upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in life science or engineering who have some familiarity with calculus, and will be a useful reference for researchers at all levels. The first four chapters cover the basics of mathematical modeling in molecular systems biology. The last four chapters address specific biological domains, treating modeling of metabolic networks, of signal transduction pathways, of gene regulatory networks, and of electrophysiology and neuronal action potentials. Chapters 3–8 end with optional sections that address more specialized modeling topics. Exercises, solvable with pen-and-paper calculations, appear throughout the text to encourage interaction with the mathematical techniques. More involved end-of-chapter problem sets require computational software. Appendixes provide a review of basic concepts of molecular biology, additional mathematical background material, and tutorials for two computational software packages (XPPAUT and MATLAB) that can be used for model simulation and analysis.

This book provides an authoritative introduction to the rapidly growing field of chemical reaction network theory. In particular, the book presents deep and surprising theorems that relate the graphical and algebraic structure of a reaction network to qualitative properties of the intricate system of nonlinear differential equations that the network induces. Over the course of three main parts, Feinberg provides a gradual transition from a tutorial on the basics of reaction network theory, to a survey of some of its principal theorems, and, finally, to a discussion of the theory’s more technical aspects. Written with great clarity, this book will be of value to mathematicians and to mathematically-inclined biologists, chemists, physicists, and engineers who want to contribute to chemical reaction network theory or make use of its powerful results.