Networks of Networks in Biology: Concepts, Tools and Applications

Book Description Biological systems are extremely complex and have emergent properties that cannot be explained or even predicted by studying their individual parts. The reductionist approach, although successful in the early days of molecular biology, underestimates this complexity. As the amount of available data grows, so it will become increasingly important to be able to analyse and integrate these large data sets. This book introduces novel approaches and solutions to the Big Data problem in biomedicine, and presents new techniques in the field of graph theory for handling and processing multi-type large data sets. By discussing cutting-edge problems and techniques, researchers from a wide range of fields will be able to gain insights for exploiting big heterogonous data in the life sciences through the concept of 'network of networks'.

Content

Part I - Networks in Biology
1. An Introduction to Biological Networks
2. Graph Theory

Part II - Network Analysis
3. Structural Analysis of Biological Networks
4. Networks from an Information-Theoretic and Algorithmic Complexity Perspective
5. Integration and Feature Identification in Multi-layer Networks using a Heat Diffusion Approach

Part III - Multi-layer Networks 
6. Multiplex Networks
7. Existing Tools for Analysis of Multi-layer Networks
8. Dynamics on Multi-layer Networks

Part IV - Applications
9. The Network of Networks Involved in Human Disease
10. Towards a Multi-layer Network Analysis of Disease: Challenges and Opportunities Through the Lens of Multiple Sclerosis
11. Microbiome: A Multi-layer Network View is Required

Part V - Conclusion 
12. Concluding Remarks: Open Questions and Challenges