title: Modelling biological rhythms.
abstract: With our growing awareness of the complexity underlying biological phenomena, our need for computational models becomes increasingly apparent. Due to their properties, biological clocks have always lent themselves to computational modelling. Their capacity to oscillate without dampening--even when deprived of all rhythmic environmental information--required the hypothesis of an endogenous oscillator. The notion of a 'clock' provided a conceptual model of this system well before the dynamics of circadian oscillators were probed by computational modelling. With growing insight into the molecular basis of circadian rhythmicity, computational models became more concrete and quantitative. Here, we review the history of modelling circadian oscillators and establish a taxonomy of the modelling world to put the large body of circadian modelling literature into context. Finally, we assess the predictive power of circadian modelling and its success in creating new hypotheses.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Goethestrasse 31, D-80336 Munich, Germany. roenneberg@lmu.de
authors.forename: Till
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Roenneberg
authors.forename: Elaine Jane
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.forename: Ric
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bernardo
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mendoza
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D008954:Models, Biological