Hans V. Westerhoff – författare

This first comprehensive survey to cover all pharmaceutically relevant topics provides a comprehensive introduction to this novel and revolutionary tool, presenting both concepts and application examples of biosimulated cells, organs and organisms. Following an introduction to the role of biosimulation in drug development, the authors go on to discuss the simulation of cells and tissues, as well as simulating drug action and effect. A further section is devoted to simulating networks and populations, and the whole is rounded off by a look at the potential for biosimulation in industrial drug development and for regulatory decisions. Part of the authors are members of the BioSim Network of Excellence that encompasses more than 40 academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and regulatory authorities dealing with drug development; other contributors come from industry, resulting in a cross-disciplinary expert reference.

For life to be understood and disease to become manageable, the wealth of postgenomic data now needs to be made dynamic. This development requires systems biology, integrating computational models for cells and organisms in health and disease; quantitative experiments (high-throughput, genome-wide, living cell, in silico); and new concepts and principles concerning interactions. This book defines the new field of systems biology and discusses the most efficient experimental and computational strategies. The benefits for industry, such as the new network-based drug-target design validation, and testing, are also presented.