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Dealing with the engineering aspects of the two emerging and intertwined fields of synthetic and systems biology, this book reflects the promise they hold to revolutionize the way molecular biology research, drug discovery, and bio-engineering are done.

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The book deals with engineering aspects of the two emerging and intertwined fields of synthetic and systems biology. Both fields hold promise to revolutionize the way molecular biology research is done, the way today´s drug discovery works and the way bio-engineering is done. Both fields stress the importance of building and characterizing small bio-molecular networks in order to synthesize incrementally and understand large complex networks inside living cells. Reminiscent of computer-aided design (CAD) of electronic circuits, abstraction is believed to be the key concept to achieve this goal. It allows hiding the overwhelming complexity of cellular processes by encapsulating network parts into abstract modules. This book provides a unique perspective on how concepts and methods from CAD of electronic circuits can be leveraged to overcome complexity barrier perceived in synthetic and systems biology.

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Simulation and Analysis of Bio-Molecular Circuits.- Introduction to Chemical Kinetics.- Computer Science Models to Describe Bio-Molecular Circuits.- Limitation of Current Modeling Approaches.-Abstraction in System Design; Abstraction Hierarchies and their use in CAD of Electronic Circuits.- Current efforts in standardization of Biological Parts.- Case Studies.-Biological Modules.- Enabling Technologies for Synthetic and Systems Biology.

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From the reviews:

"This collection of papers is an excellent reference for anyone who would like to learn more about the engineering and computing side of systems and synthetic biology. ... this clear and detailed volume will help to introduce mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists to an application of their fields in biology. It will also serve biologists who want to know more about how in silico technologies can be an important part of the arsenal used to understand and create biological systems." (Sara Kalvala, ACM Computing Reviews, June, 2012)

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