Computational models in systems biology: A report of the 6th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology, Rostock, Germany, 12-15 October 2008.

One of the chief goals of systems biology is to build mechanistic mathematical models of biological systems to further the understanding of biological detail. Such models often aim at predicting the outcome of potentially interesting
biological experiments, and if such predictions are confirmed by wet-lab observations, an important step forward is made. How exactly such models are constructed and how predictions are computed were at the core of a recent
conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology that brought 80 participants to Rostock, Germany (for conference proceedings see volume 5307 of Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007 /978-3-540-88562-7]).