A Course in Mathematical Biology

Questions about infectious diseases, heart attacks, cell signalling, cell movement, ecology, environmental changes, and genomics are now being analysed using mathematical and computational methods. This book teaches all aspects of modern mathematical modelling and is specifically designed to introduce undergraduate students to problem solving in the context of biology. The field of mathematical biology is growing rapidly. Questions about infectious diseases, heart attacks, cell signaling, cell movement, ecology, environmental changes, and genomics are now being analyzed using mathematical and computational methods. A Course in Mathematical Biology teaches all aspects of modern mathematical modeling and is specifically designed to introduce undergraduate students to problem solving in the context of biology. Divided into three parts, the book covers basic analytical modeling techniques and model validation methods; introduces computational tools used in the modeling of biological problems; and provides a source of open-ended problems from epidemiology, ecology, and physiology. All chapters include realistic biological examples, and there are many exercises related to biological questions. In addition, the book includes 25 open-ended research projects that can be used by students. The book is accompanied by a Web site that contains solutions to most of the exercises and a tutorial for the implementation of the computational modeling techniques. Calculations can be done in modern computing languages such as Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB®.