Mathematical Models in the Biosciences II

Book excerpt: Volume Two of an award-winning professor's introduction to essential concepts of calculus and mathematical modeling for students in the biosciences This is the second of a two-part series exploring essential concepts of calculus in the context of biological systems. Building on the essential ideas and theories of basic calculus taught in Mathematical Models in the Biosciences I, this book focuses on epidemiological models, mathematical foundations of virus and antiviral dynamics, ion channel models and cardiac arrhythmias, vector calculus and applications, and evolutionary models of disease. It also develops differential equations and stochastic models of many biomedical processes, as well as virus dynamics, the Clancy-Rudy model to determine the genetic basis of cardiac arrhythmias, and a sketch of some systems biology. Based on the author's calculus class at Yale, the book makes concepts of calculus less abstract and more relatable for science majors and premedical students.