Given the huge amount of material, and the fact that most students are from
departments other than math, I will emphasize models, physical/biological
intuition, and the USE of mathematical tools, but will no do any real proofs.
(Sorry to the math students - but we can do that "offline". :)

Book: I think this book is an excellent reference, so it is worth having, but
we will only cover a small part of the book.  I will be making "slides" for
class (I mean computer screens), and posting those on the web, and much
material will be there.

The first class will be on Wednesday 9:50-11:10, room 423, and the next class
after that is on Friday 2:50-4:10.  Wednesday of the week after that (10th),
Dr. Patrick deLeenheer will be giving a guest lecture - I will have to be
attending a conference that day.  I have no current plans for travel during
any of the other class days, except for one day in November.

Class attendance will not only be expected, but is required.  The grade
will be largely based on your participation - we'll also have some projects
and such.  So please do not skip classes.

There is a huge amount of material in the book, so, obviously, we'll only get
to cover a small part of it.  As a start, I intend to cover chapters 1,2,4,5
in that order (skipping chapter 3 for now, which is more specialized).

Chapter 1 includes basics of biochemical (including enzymatic) reactions:
inhibition, cooperativity, Michaelis-Menten, and examples such as glycolysis.
Mathematically, this material gives us an "excuse" to talk about time-scale
separation (singular perturbations), phase planes, bifurcations, and
oscillations.  It is the basis for everything else in the course.

Chapter 2 covers the movement of chemicals inside and in/out of cells:
(plain and facilitated) diffusion, carrier-mediated transport, and models of
the membrane including the role of ion pumps, with an application of the study
of cell volume.  

I'll skip Chapter 3 (detailed models of ion channels) for now - it is a bit
long and specialized, and we'll never get anywhere if we try to cover it at
this point.

Chapter 4 deals with the Hodgkin-Huxley model for neurons, and leads us to
talk about excitability and oscillations.  This subject is, historically, the
most successful application of math in physiology, and everything from
chapters 1 and 2 gets used here.

Chapter 5 is related, in that many similar questions (such as excitability,
models for membranes, etc) show up , but it deals with calcium (as opposed to
sodium and potassium as in chapter 4).  Calcium plays a central role in life,
and its control in cells is one of the main regulatory problems.

I have no idea how long it will take us to cover chapters 1,2,4,5.  It all
depends on how much detail we cover and how many questions there are.  Among
other subjects that I would definitely like to cover are the chapter on cell
cycle and the one on bursting oscillations.  We'll see what happens.  (If 
there is enough student interest, we can always try to see if we can have a
continuation next semester.)