Introduction to the Special Issue on Approaches to Control Biological and Biologically Inspired Networks

TL;DR

This special issue reviews recent advances in controlling biological and biologically inspired networks, addressing challenges like high dimensionality and nonlinearity, with potential applications across various complex network domains.

Contribution

It compiles diverse approaches to observe, identify, and control complex networks, highlighting methods that tackle common challenges in biological and related systems.

Findings

Advances in control methods for high-dimensional biological networks

Strategies to manage nonlinearity and uncertainty in network control

Potential cross-domain applications of these control approaches

Abstract

The emerging field at the intersection of quantitative biology, network modeling, and control theory has enjoyed significant progress in recent years. This Special Issue brings together a selection of papers on complementary approaches to observe, identify, and control biological and biologically inspired networks. These approaches advance the state of the art in the field by addressing challenges common to many such networks, including high dimensionality, strong nonlinearity, uncertainty, and limited opportunities for observation and intervention. Because these challenges are not unique to biological systems, it is expected that many of the results presented in these contributions will also find applications in other domains, including physical, social, and technological networks.