The LNCS journal Transactions on Computational Systems Biology is devoted to inter- and multidisciplinary research in the fields of computer science and life sciences and supports a paradigmatic shift in the techniques from computer and information science to cope with the new challenges arising from the systems oriented point of view of biological phenomena.


This, the 4th Transactions on Computational Systems Biology volume, contains carefully selected and enhanced contributions presented at the first Converging Science conference held at the University of Trento, Italy, in December 2004.


Dedicated especially to models and metaphors from biology to bioinformatics tools, the 11 papers selected for the special issue cover a wide range of bioinformatics research, such as foundations of global computing, interdisciplinarity in innovation initiatives, convergence of sciences, biodiversity, the concept of e-science, programming languages in systems biology, neuronal cells, bioinspired autonomic computing, digitalization and telecommunications, quantitative modeling of gene networks, and protein/RNA structure prediction.