Quantitative biology: from genes, cells to networks

Abstract

Quantitative biology is an exciting emerging field that focuses on using systematic and quantitative approaches and technologies to analyze and integrate biological systems, construct and model engineered life systems, and even manipulate biological processes and functions. The advance of high-throughput biotechnologies has shifted the paradigm of biological researches from focusing on intricacies of molecular components to understanding how biological systems function in terms of modules and networks. On October 13–17 in 2014, more than 200 participants gathered at Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conference on Quantitative Biology in Suzhou, China, to exchange and discuss recent advances in quantitatively understanding of biological systems at the scale of genes, cells, and integrated networks. The conference was led by Michael Q. Zhang (University of Texas at Dallas, USA; Tsinghua University, China), Chao Tang (Peking University, China) and Terence Hwa (University of California San Diego, USA). In this report, we highlighted a few themes among 32 oral presentations and 34 poster presentations brought by this conference.