SubjectsSubjects(version: 982)
Course, academic year 2026/2027
  
   
Systems Biology - AP143002
Title: Systems Biology
Guaranteed by: Department of Informatics and Chemistry (143)
Faculty: Faculty of Chemical Technology
Actual: from 2019
Semester: both
Points: 0
E-Credits: 0
Examination process:
Hours per week, examination: 3/0, other [HT]
Capacity: winter:unknown / unknown (unknown)Schedule is not published yet, this information might be misleading.
summer:unknown / unknown (unknown)Schedule is not published yet, this information might be misleading.
Min. number of students: unlimited
State of the course: taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Note: course is intended for doctoral students only
can be fulfilled in the future
you can enroll for the course in winter and in summer semester
Guarantor: Kolář Michal Mgr. Ph.D.
Classification: Biology > Theoretical Biology
Interchangeability : N143048, P143002
Examination dates   Schedule   
Annotation -
The aim of the lecture is to provide a first insight into systems biology. We will focus primarily on the structure of regulatory networks, their global properties, and the enrichment of network motifs. Using real examples, we will study frequently recurring motifs, explain their functions, and discuss the reasons why they are evolutionarily conserved. We will examine the mechanisms by which robustness is achieved in these networks and how they are evolutionarily optimized.
Last update: P143002\5002794 (12.02.2026)
Course completion requirements -

At the end of the semester, students submit assignments, present a thematically relevant research article, and take a written exam.

Last update: P143002\5002794 (12.02.2026)
Literature -

Recommended:

  • Z: Alon, U.: An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits (Second edition). CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2020.

Last update: Kolář Michal (12.02.2026)
Syllabus -

1. How cells sense the world: signaling and regulatory networks.

2. Transcription networks and their properties. Network motifs.

3. Autoregulation: how to speed up processes that are too slow.

4. Coherent feed-forward loop: protection against random fluctuations.

5. Incoherent feed-forward loop: rapid response to environmental changes.

6. Regulatory networks in embryonic development: the bistable switch.

7. Neural networks: the multilayer perceptron.

8. Additional network motifs and the global structure of regulatory networks.

9. Robustness of signaling networks: chemotaxis. Robustness in embryonic development. Kinetic proofreading. Dynamic compensation.

10. Optimality of gene circuits and their relationship to biological fitness. The demand rule.

11. Weber’s law and fold-change detection.

Last update: P143002\5002794 (12.02.2026)
Learning outcomes -

Students will be able to:

  • characterize basic biological regulatory networks and their network motifs
  • describe the biological reasons leading to the enrichment of specific network motifs (autoregulation, feed-forward loop, etc.)
  • mathematically describe important regulatory motifs and discuss their robustness and optimality

Last update: P143002\5002794 (12.02.2026)
Registration requirements -

Biochemistry, Molecular Genetics, Mathematical Analysis

Last update: P143002\5002794 (12.02.2026)
 
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