Statistical Physics and Biology

[cKatke]

I'm undergrad physics student and I have read some statistical physics like equilibrium statistical physics, Langevin model and Fokker-Planck equation. I have developed interest in application of statistical physics in biology like protein folding. So what are the other research topics that lie in domain of application of statistical physics to solve biological problems ?

 

[Ygggdrasil]

There has been some work in applying statistical mechanics to understand cell morphology and multi-cellular structures, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_Potts_model

Statistical physics, especially when applied to the study of polymers, is not only useful for proteins, but for understanding DNA as well. There is a huge amount of interest currently in determining the three dimensional structure of how DNA gets packaged into the nucleus, and various groups are trying to develop models for how this might occur. See for example:
http://www.aidenlab.org/papers/Science.Genome.Folding.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4722799/
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7586/full/nature16496.html

Others have argued that approaches inspired by statistical physics may be helpful for understanding cellular differentiation. Biology is certainly entering an era where we can generate data faster than we can analyze it, and better theoretical models are required for understanding complex processes like stem cell differentiation:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867413008957