In recent years it has become clear that mathematical tools from
algebra, group theory, combinatorics, and topology play essential
roles in understanding vital biological processes at the molecular
scale. These include applications of
- polynomials over finite fields in systems biology;
- combinatorics and graph theory in secondary and ternary RNA
structures, mRNA, as well as in protein folding and protein-protein
interactions;
- combinatorics, algebra and tiling theory in the modeling of
viral capsid assembly; and
- spatial graphs and topology in DNA-DNA, and DNA-RNA interactions
and splicings.
There are a number of intriguing connections between these techniques, and they
are all essential tools for our understanding of structures and processes in molecular
biology, especially nucleic acids and proteins.
