Possible Topics for a Course on Quantitative Physiology

Abstract

Physiology concerns, at its core, the concept of maintaining homeostasis in the human body. A central theme in life on the planet from the microscopic to the eukaryotic, homeostasis impacts on diverse processes across the entire scale of biological organisation. This work describes a potential course that seeks to use the power of applied mathematics to conceptualise and model different physiological processes that occur in cells, tissues, and organs. Fundamental to physiology are the key processes of metabolism, biofluid circulation, DNA replication and cellular division, as well as gene expression. Advent of analytical approaches in different fields of life sciences have lend the above-mentioned processes to mathematical interrogation and modelling, thereby, allowing predictions of human body processes to be made and possible deviation from nominal behaviour more readily understood.

Keywords: quantitative physiology, mathematical modelling, biofluid circulation, gene expression, metabolism, DNA replication