(taken from the application): The amount and rate of accumulation of biological information is increasing rapidly, as is demonstrated by the fact that there are now over 300 biological databases accessible from the World Wide Web. There is growing recognition, however, that the emergent, integrative behaviors of biological systems are a result of complex dynamic interactions between all the components from which these systems are composed, and that knowledge of each system component, however detailed, is not sufficient by itself to understand these integrative behaviors. It is our thesis that a quantitative understanding of biological function will only be achieved through development of structurally, biochemically and biophysically detailed computational models that are based directly on experimental data. Once developed, these models can be simulated, analyzed and understood through application of modem engineering and computational approaches. We therefore propose to create a Consortium for Integrative Modeling of Biological Systems. The goal of this Consortium will be to develop and apply computational models to better understand functional properties of biological systems at multiple structural and functional levels ranging from that of regulation of gene expression to that of the cell, and in some instances the organ level. This Consortium will develop new approaches for the generation, storage and dissemination of computational models, and web-based course materials in support of education and research training in computational modeling at undergraduate, graduate, medical, postdoctoral and general scientist levels.
