Molecular Evolution on Rugged Landscapes: Protein, RNA, and the Immune System (Volume IX)

Rugged fitness landscapes, and emerging area of biological science, underline both molecular and morphological evolution. Mathematical descriptions of such landscapes can be expected to lead to new experimental studies that actually test and establish their structure. In addition, current experimental techniques now allow one to carry out applied molecular evolution in the laboratory, opening up the possibility of evolving biomolecules for medical and industrial use.Molecular Evolution on Rugged Fitness Landscapes,based on a Santa Fe Institute workshop, is the first book to serve as a comprehensive introduction to these tools that permit researchers to study the structures of complex, rugged, multipeaked fitness landscapes.The first section of the book outlines a number of the general issues concerning the structure of rugged fitness landscapes. The second section examines both the history and status of experimental work on somatic mutation and the maturation of the immune response, and discusses the hypercycle model of the origin of life. This proceedings volume is an excellent reference for graduate students and professionals in immunology, population biology, physics and molecular biology.

Alan S. Perelson is a Staff Member of the Theoretical Biophysics Group, and an affiliate of the Center for Nonlinear Studios, University of California, Los Alamos, National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972. Perelson received the N.I.H. Research Career Development Award (1979-1984); and the Bousch Lomb Medal for Excellence in Biology. His research interests are the application of mathematics to immunological, physiological, chemical, and biophysical problems. Stuart A. Kauffman is the founding director of the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics and a professor of biological sciences, physics, and astronomy at the University of Calgary. He is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, a MacArthur Fellow, and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His books include The Origins of Order and At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. He lives in Calgary, Canada.