Modelling of biological systems

Teacher(s)

Lefèvre Philippe;

Language

English

Prerequisites

Students need to master the common core skills described in the civil Engineering Bachelor's programme

Main themes

Vision and other sensory systems, the oculomotor and other motor systems and their mathematical modeling.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	With respect to the AA referring system defined for the Master in Biomedical Engineering, the course contributes to the development, mastery and assessment of the following skills : AA1.1, AA1.2, AA1.3 AA2.2 AA3.1, AA3.2 AA4.3 AA5.3, AA5.5, AA5.6 AA6.3 More precisely, at the end of this course, students will be able to: Disciplinary Learning Outcomes Understand basic knowledge about biological systems in order to model them. Understand and be able to model different types of biological systems by using appropriate modeling tools. Choose appropriate models and argue about these choices depending on the modeling application. Make a critical analysis about the relevance and interest of mathematical models of biological systems in their capacity to predict new experimental results and inspire original experimental protocols. Use softwares and computers to implement and simulate mathematical models of biological systems. Transversal Learning Outcomes Make a critical analysis of the scientific literature devoted to the development of original mathematical models of biological systems. Make a concise and critical presentation of a scientific article related to mathematical models of biological systems.

Content

In the field of modeling of sensory and motor physiological systems, this course will present how a mathematical model is built in the biomedical field, starting from the laws of nature. It will describe how its elaboration is always closely linked to experiment work aiming at obtaining data on which the model will be based. The model will be presented as a tool that allows explaining basic mechanisms of biological systems and making predictions of the responses of the system in new experimental conditions. The different steps of the model development will be presented: initial observations, hypotheses, model testing and validation. Different types of models will be described and illustrated, for instance: deterministic versus stochastic, static versus dynamic or chaotic, parametric versus non-parametric, lumped versus distributed. These notions will be illustrated by mathematical models in the biomedical field as for instance physiological models (Hodgkin-Huxley), compartment models or population models.

Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

The course is made of lectures given by the teachers as well as practical exercises based on the critical analysis and presentation of scientific publications dedicated to mathematical models of biological systems. 

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

Students will be individually evaluated (written and/or oral examination) on the learning outcomes detailed above.

Online resources

Moodle
http://moodleucl.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=8449

Bibliography

Les documents du cours sont disponibles sur Moodle.

Faculty or entity

GBIO