Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine

Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine will address the fundamentals of complex systems science, its applicability and relevance to biological and medical grand challenges and its potential for the development of novel research tools as well as innovative diagnostic and treatment strategies. This textbook focuses on the importance of complex systems science in biomedical research and its impact on clinical problem solving. In Parts I and II, the book describes general topics in complex systems science with implications for biomedicine so that the interested, non-specialist, is able to understand the underlying hypothesis as well as the approaches and techniques used in the following sections. The core of the book (Part III) features the application of the aforementioned techniques to specific biomedical topics, starting with the molecular and cellular levels, to whole organ systems (such as the brain and the immune system), leading to the description of dynamical disease processes such as cancer and aging. These examples have been chosen because of their importance and impact for the future (e.g., cancer, HIV, aging). The last part of the book (Part IV) discusses emergent technologies built on better understanding of these complex systems and required to further study these systems in even greater detail. It ranges from bioengineering and DNA-chip technology to diagnostic imaging and virtual reality applications.