title: From cells to organisms: current topics in mathematical and theoretical biology.
abstract: At the beginning of this special issue of Acta Biotheoretica carrying the above title, we present a brief overview on currently important topics that have been brought up during the last "European Conference on Mathematical and Theoretical Biology" in Edinburgh. After emphasizing the need for a "synthetic biology" also from the side of theory, model building and analysis, we survey most plenary talks of this Conference and a selected series of eigth review articles, which are mainly related to corresponding minisymposia, reflecting the current state of the art and the lively discussion within this interdisciplinary field.
authors.affiliation: Group of Theoretical Biology, IZMB, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Bonn, Kirschallee 1-3, 53115 Bonn, Germany. wolf.alt@uni-bonn.de
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Alt
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Byrne
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deutsch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002477:Cells; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D049490:Systems Biology