Discrete Algebraic Models of Biological Networks

Abdul Jarrah, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute

Abstract: Elucidating the topology and dynamics of biological networks from high throughput data is a central goal of the emerging field of systems biology. Mathematical modeling plays an essential role as it is used to construct and analyze models that capture the dynamics and provide insights at the system level. Recently polynomial dynamical systems over finite fields have been introduced as a new framework for modeling and analyzing biological networks as multi-states finite dynamical systems, generalizing Boolean networks and logical models. Within this algebraic framework, using tools from computational algebra and algebraic geometry, the whole model space is presented and different algebraic methods have been proposed for identifying a particular model from the model space. Furthermore, methods for analyzing the dynamics of classes of polynomial systems have been developed. In this talk I will present this new approach and some of the main results.