Dynamic Systems and Computational Virology, new CSIC Associate Unit between the CRM and the I2SysBio

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has approved the creation of a new Associated Unit (AU) called Dynamic Systems and Computational Virology (SDVC). This new AU is initially formed by Santiago Elena, CSIC research professor at Instituto de Biología Integrativa de Sistemas​ (I2SysBio) and Tomás Alarcón (ICREA research professor) and Josep Sardanyés (Ramón y Cajal researcher) of the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM)​, a consortium of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

This AU is based on a scientific collaboration over the last few years that has explored a complementarity between computational and experimental approaches to the study of the evolutionary dynamics of RNA viruses. This complementation has been bi-directional.​

> In the direction from mathematics to virology, through the development of mathematical and simulation models that have generated contrastable hypotheses about the dynamic properties of viral populations that have subsequently been evaluated experimentally in the laboratory.

> In the direction from virology to mathematics, when experimental observations were not intuitive, through the design of simulation models that reproduced in silicothe experiments and allowed us to postulate which parameters and variables were the most relevant.

With the creation of this AU, both institutions aim to strengthen the interdisciplinarity of the institute, increasing both directions of work and making it possible for physicists and mathematicians to approach fundamental biological problems, while scientists trained in the areas of life sciences have access to the approaches of mathematical modeling and computational simulation.

More information:

Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM)

Evolutionary Systems Virology Group​