"The volume is based on the talks and lectures given by participants of the three-month program 'Topology in Condensed Matter,' which was held in the Max-Planck-Institut f�r Physik komplexer Systeme, Dresden, Germany, 8 May - 31 July 22"--Foreword.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Topology in biology: from DNA mechanics to enzymology / S.D. Levene -- Monte Carlo simulation of DNA topological properties / A. Vologodski?i -- Dynamics of DNA supercoiling / A. Gabibov ... [et al.] -- From tangle fractions to DNA / L.H. Kauffman, S. Lambropoulou -- Linear behavior of the writhe versus the number of crossings in rational knots and links / C. Cerf, Andrzej Stasiak -- Combinatories and topology of the [Beta]-sandwich and [Beta]-barrel proteins / A.E. Kister ... [et al.] -- The structure of collagen / N. Rivier, J.-F. Sadoc -- Euler characteristic, Dehn-Sommerville characteristics, and their applications / V.M. Buchstaber -- Hopf fibration and its applications / M. Monastyrsky -- Multi-valued functionals, one-forms and deformed de Rham complex / D.V. Millionschikov -- The spectral geometry of Riemann surfaces / Robert Brooks.

The book presents a class of results in molecular biology for which topological methods and ideas are important. These include: the large-scale conformation properties of DNA; computational methods (Monte Carlo) allowing the simulation of large-scale properties of DNA; the tangle model of DNA recombination and other applications of Knot theory; dynamics of supercoiled DNA and biocatalitic properties of DNA; the structure of proteins; and other very recent problems in molecular biology. The text also provides a short course of modern topology intended for the broad audience of biologists and physicists.