The objectives of the interdisciplinary workshop "Applications of Methods of Stochastic Systems and Statistical Physics in Biology", jointly organized by the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Biocomplexity at the University of Notre Dame, Biocomplexity Institute at Indiana University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and in cooperation with the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), are to: 1) Discuss new methods of stochastic analysis and statistical physics of importance in biological modeling and suggest new problems for modeling and experiment; 2) Explore similarities and differences between complex biological phenomena due to noise; 3) Promote interactions between mathematicians, biologists, chemists, physicists and engineers with interests in modeling stochastic behavior in biology and 4) Provide a forum for junior faculty and graduate students to interact with a wide range of experts and attract new researchers to the field of biological modeling. The topics will cover length scales from single molecule interactions and genetics to systems biology and ecology. The meeting will consist of a public lecture, a keynote address, four oral sessions, a poster session and a panel discussion on future directions.
The scientific focus of the workshop will be on 1) the outstanding problems in biological and medical research which require stochastic and statistical approaches, 2) the main mathematical issues which complicate applications of such methods and 3) the best current solutions and existing solutions from non-biological stochastic and statistical modeling which can be applied to solve the problems in 2). The Workshop will bring together researchers in many disciplines (including mathematics, experimental and theoretical biology, medical research, biophysics, engineering, and computer science) to discuss current and future applications of methods of stochastic systems and statistical physics to problems ranging from single molecular biophysics to HIV immunology and cardiac electrophysiology. This Workshop will promote collaboration and development of both experimental and theoretical studies of biology and expose a broad range of outside researchers to problems in mathematical and computational modeling of complex biological systems. This cross fertilization should help mathematical, physical and engineering communities in reaching out to biologists, resulting in new mathematical and computational approaches which will improve our understanding of the fundamental problems in biology.
