Computational Methods in Systems Biology

Inresponsetothecallforpapers39weresubmittedtoCMSB2003. Allthe submittedpaperswerereviewedandtheprogrammecommittee(listedbelow) selected11high-qualitypapersforpublicationinthisvolume. Thecareofthe reviewersandoftheprogrammecommitteemembersinreviewingthepapers wassurelyvaluable. Afurther11paperswereselectedonlyforpresentationat theworkshopinordertostimulatediscussions(anabstractisincluded). AttheworkshopEhudShapiroandMichaelSterngavetwoinvited talks whosetopicsaredescribedinpapersincludedinthisvolume. Theprogramme committeedecidedtoacceptforpublicationinthisvolumealsosomeposition papers that highlight the research trends in this new ?eld of computational methodsinsystemsbiology. Thereasonisthatbecausethisisthe?rstedition ofaworkshopinthisfast-growing?eldalargeviewofpotentialtopicsofresearch wasconsideredextremelyimportant. Rovereto,December2002 CorradoPriami ProgrammeCommitteeofCMSB 2003 CorradoPriami(Chair),UniversityofTrento(Italy), CharlesAu?ray,CNRS,Villejuif(France), CosimaBaldari,Universit`adiSiena(Italy), AlexanderBockmayr,Universit¿eHenriPoincar¿e(France), LucaCardelli,MicrosoftResearchCambridge(UK), VincentDanos,Universit¿eParisVII(France), PierpaoloDegano,Universitad ` iPisa(Italy), Francois ¿ Fages,INRIA,Rocquencourt(France), DrabløsFinn,NorwegianUniversityofScienceandTechnology,Trondheim(N- way), MonikaHeiner,BrandenburgUniversityofTechnologyatCottbus(Germany), InaKoch,UniversityofAppliedSciencesBerlin,(Germany), JohnE. Ladbury,UniversityCollegeLondon(UK), PatrickLincoln,SRI(USA), SatoruMiyano,UniversityofTokyo(Japan), GordonPlotkin,UniversityofEdinburgh(UK), SimonPlyte,PharmaciaCorporation(Italy), AvivRegev,WeizmannInstituteofScience(Israel), MagaliRoux-Rouqui¿e,BSMIPasteurInstitute(France), VincentSchachter,HybrigenicsParis(France), MasaruTomita,KeioUniversity(Japan), AdelindeUhrmacher,UniversityofRostock(Germany), AlfonsoValencia,CNB-CSIC,CentroNacionaldeBiotecnologia(Spain), OlafWolkenhauer,UMIST,Manchester(UK) Local Organizing Committee Corrado