A formal framework for bioprocesses in living cells

Abstract

Natural Computing is an interdisciplinary field of research that investigates human-designed computing inspired by nature as well as computation taking place in nature. In other words, Natural Computing investigates models, computational techniques, and computational technologies inspired by nature as well as it investigates, in terms of information processing, phenomena/processes taking place in nature. One of the fascinating research areas of Natural Computing is the computational nature of biochemical reactions taking place in living cells. It is hoped that this line of research may contribute to a computational understanding of the functioning of a living cell. An important step towards this goal is understanding interactions between biochemical reactions. These reactions and their interactions are regulated, and the main regulation mechanisms are facilitation/ acceleration and inhibition/retardation. The interactions between individual reactions take place through their influence on each other, and this influence happens through the two mechanisms. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.