APSC/BIO 351 — Spring 2011 — Tues & Thur 3:30–4:50

Gregory D. Smith (Applied Science) greg@as.wm.edu

Cellular Biophysics and Modeling is an introduction to mathematical modeling in cellular physiology and neuroscience.

Topics covered include: membrane transport and diffusion, classical bio- physics of the squid giant axon, the gating of voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels, metabotropic receptors, signal transduction, intracellular calcium responses, and plasma membrane and endoplasmic reticulum excitability, bistability, oscillations, and bursting.

Each topic will be studied from the perspective of nonlinear dynamics. Mathematical idealizations of each phenomena will be constructed and then analyzed using computer simulation (numerical integration) and graphical techniques (phase-plane analysis).

Recommended reading:

• Dynamical Systems in Neuroscience: The Geometry of Excitability and Bursting. Eugene M. Izhikevich. 2006.
• Ionic Channels of Excitable Membranes. Bertil Hille. 2001.
• Computational Cell Biology: An Introduction to Computer Model- ing in Molecular Cell Biology. Chris Fall et al., eds. 2002.

Cellular Biophysics and Modeling is a required course in W&M’s Neu- roscience major and the Applied Science Theoretical Biology minor.