Multiscale Analysis of Biological Systems

Acta Biotheoretica 61 (1):3-19 (2013)
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Abstract

It is argued that multiscale approaches are necessary for an explanatory modeling of biological systems. A first step, besides common to the multiscale modeling of physical and living systems, is a bottom-up integration based on the notions of effective parameters and minimal models. Top-down effects can be accounted for in terms of effective constraints and inputs. Biological systems are essentially characterized by an entanglement of bottom-up and top-down influences following from their evolutionary history. A self-consistent multiscale scheme is proposed to capture the ensuing circular causality. Its differences with standard mean-field self-consistent equations and slow-fast decompositions are discussed. As such, this scheme offers a way to unravel the multilevel architecture of living systems and their regulation. Two examples, genome functions and biofilms, are detailed

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References found in this work

The Architecture of Complexity.Herbert A. Simon - 1962 - Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106.
More is different.P. W. Anderson - 1994 - In H. Gutfreund & G. Toulouse (eds.), Biology and Computation: A Physicist's Choice. World Scientific. pp. 3--21.

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