"Languages and Notations for Systems Biology"

Luca Cardelli
Microsoft Research

Department of Mathematics "L. Tonelli"
Via F. Buonarroti, 2
Aula Magna Faedo - at 15:00

Process calculi are formal languages for the modular and compositional description of discrete highly concurrent systems. They have been developed to describe software, hardware, and networking systems, and to analyze such system by a number of different techniques. There are many flavors of process calculi, but there are also general theories and methodologies that can be used to generate and study new ones almost "on demand" for specific applications.
Recently, process calculi have been applied or adapted to describe biological systems (protein, gene, and membrane interactions), typically by adding stochastic behavior.
In the seminar the notations currently used by biologists, the (possible) advantages of using process calculi notations in that domain, and process calculi proposed specifically for dynamic membrane systems, will be discussed.