*BioSB Course - Modelling & optimization for bioinformatics and systems biology* *Website: *Modelling & optimization <https://www.biosb.nl/archive-courses/modeling-and-optimization-2019/> for bioinformatics and systems biology *Date: *9-13 December 2019 *Location: * Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands *Coordinators: * Jaap Molenaar, WUR *Registration: * Register now via the website! <https://www.biosb.nl/archive-courses/modeling-and-optimization-2019/> *Course overview* In this course the participants learn how to describe the dynamic behavior of biological systems, and how to use optimization techniques to solve a variety of problems in bioinformatics and systems biology. Concepts of modelling in terms of differential equations are introduced via a great variety of case studies taken from diverse practices. This course also provides you with the main ideas underlying classical optimization, such as *steepest descent methods, Levenberg-Marquardt approach, genetic algorithms, global and local search methods*, and to get you acquainted with the optimization techniques that are nowadays available and widely used. Examples of optimization problems in life sciences will be presented and discussed. The course is a mixture of theory sessions and computer practicals. During the practicals we will work with the easy-to-use package *PPlane* for phaseplane analysis and most of the time with *Matlab*. Participants not acquainted with Matlab will get the opportunity to follow an introduction module. The course offers a math refresher to help those participants who are not (yet) involved in modelling on a daily basis. The course is completed with assignments in the form of practical exercises as homework afterwards. *Teachers:* - Aalt-Jan van Dijk, Wageningen University & Research - Hans Stigter, Wageningen University & Research - Natal van Riel, TU Eindhoven - Aljoscha Wahl, TU Delft *Target audience* PhDs and Postdocs interested in the fundamental modeling concepts and techniques of Systems Biology and Optimization. Basic knowledge of mathematics is assumed, Programming experience and knowledge of Matlab is preferable but not required. *Learning objectives* The students will be provided with a theoretical basis, a variety of methods and a computational hands-on experience to handle differential equation modelling and numerical optimization. In the course the students will learn: - To understand the common ground and the differences for applications of dynamic modeling in metabolic, regulatory, signaling, population and multi-scale biological processes; - How to set-up a dynamic model to represent biological networks using different interaction mechanisms; - To implement, simulate and analyze dynamic network models; - To apply different types of numerical optimization methods; - The combination of dynamic modeling and optimization to estimate model parameters and design experiments; - Design of experiments to minimize the uncertainty in parameter estimates. *Course credits* The study load of this course is 3 ECTS credits. Participants will get a certificate after successfully completing this course. *Registration fee* The registration fees for this 5-day course are: PhD student: 400 euro (excl. VAT), Academic researcher (PI/Postdoc): 600 euro (excl. VAT), Industry: 900 euros (excl.VAT) ------------------------- *About the BioSB research school* BioSB <https://www.biosb.nl/> is the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology community in the Netherlands. We are committed to train the next generation of computational life scientists. Our challenging and inspiring education programme covers essential topics in bioinformatics and systems biology, taught by teams of experts. *Upcoming BioSB courses* Registration is open for the following BioSB courses: - Constraint based modelling <https://www.biosb.nl/archive-courses/constraint-based-modelling-introduction-and-advanced-topics-2019/> - 25-29 November 2019, Leiden, the Netherlands For more information you can visit our website <http://www.biosb.nl/> or contact us via: education@biosb.nl