Computational Cell Biology: Second Theme Issue on “Computational Biology”

Biological cells, the elementary units of life, are in the focus of modern biosciences and thus, also of theoretical and mathematical biology. One reason is the fact that quantitative modelling and simulation of the processes that determine cellular processes (as in genetics, metabolism, signalling, motility or tissue formation) are of central importance for the investigation of general biological phenomena and applications in the rapidly growing areas of biomedicine and biotechnology. For instance, the behaviour of simple cellular organisms as bacteria, amoebae, or yeast has always attracted theoreticians, and more and more sophisticated mathematical models have been developed in the recent past that take into account newly detected effects on the molecular or micromechanical level. The mechanisms learned by studying such “simple” organisms allow to take up the challenge of modelling and simulating, thus better understanding the more complex behaviour of eukaryotic and, particularly, of human cells. Therefore, we gladly took the offered opportunity to conceive a special JMB theme issue on the computational and modelling aspects related to the biology of