The (Re)Construction of Realities in Systems Biology

Systems biology has emerged as an interdisciplinary effort in which cellular processes are investigated with the help of mathematical models. In contrast to the engineering sciences, for which models are constructed by "first principles", the role of mathematical in the life sciences is to encode and help to validate hypotheses.

In my presentation I shall present a personal perspective of the field, focusing on challenges and opportunities for mathematical modelling. I am not going to present a specific research project but will draw upon the experience of several collaborations with experimentalists and will discuss the question which kind of models are required for systems biology and ask whether there are any limitations to the systems biology approach.