Abstract

Biological Theoretical Physics aims to model and discover emergent properties of biological systems, encompassing molecular factors, genomes, cells and organs, whose theoretical description is only possible at the system level, by using innovative methods and ideas coming from theoretical physics. This is a novel, key research area in physics, triggered by the development of new quantitative, high-throughput experiments in molecular biology, where relevant, original results are expected to ground the understanding of the functioning of life on the fundamental principles of physics, with important implications in science, industry and biomedicine alike. Our project is positioned in such a strategic, internationally growing scientific field and aims at supporting the national research community on biological theoretical physics within the INFN. It includes a dozen different local teams working in close collaborations with each other and with a number of experimental molecular biology labs worldwide.