Using First Principles to Reverse-engineer Complex Biological Systems

Harvard FAS

As more modeling efforts are performed by machines, young scientists may become unfamiliar with intuitive reasoning. Here, I propose a thought-provoking class where students with quantitative background learn to develop intuitive thinking by constructing reductive hypotheses to characterize and predict the behavior of complex biological systems. All models rely on calculations made by hand without the help of any computer. Most of the tools used in the class are derived from advanced…