"Systems biology...is about putting together rather than taking apart, integration rather than reduction. It requires that we develop ways of thinking about integration that are as rigorous as our reductionist programs, but different. It means changing our philosophy, in the full sense of the term." - Denis Noble (2006). The Music of Life: Biology beyond the genome. Oxford University Press.
As an analogy, if you wanted to study an automobile, and only focused on identifying the engine, seat belts, and tail lights, and studied their specific functions, - you would have no real understanding of how an automobile operates. More important, you would have no understanding of how to effectively service the vehicle when something malfunctioned.
Systems Biology In Action (The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts)
The goal of systems biology is to discover new emergent properties in order to better
understand the entirety of processes that happen in a biological system. Some of the
areas of study are listed below, along with the associated 'omic.
Systems Biology Combines:
- Genomics (Genome)
- Pharmacogenomics: pharmaco-relevant genes
- Spliceomics: splicing codons
- Transcriptomics: Whole cell or tissue gene expression measurements by
DNA microarrays or serial analysis of gene expression
- Proteomics (Proteins): Identification of proteins and protein expression patterns
- Metabolomics: Identification and measurement of all small-molecules
metabolites within a cell or tissue
- Bioinformatics: Use of computers to find and then integrate data
Systems Biology Projects or Efforts
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“To understand systems, and to be able to fully understand a system's emergent
properties, systems need be studied as a whole.
This recognition that complex systems,
especially life, are truly understood from
knowledge of the interactions of their
component parts is fundamental to
systems biology and all the research at the
Institute for Systems Biology.”
- Quote from Institute for Systems Biology |
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Researchers are busy working with various
organizations and agencies to put all the
pieces together.
A few organizations working to accomplish this are listed below:
1) The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB)
The Institute for Systems Biology was co-founded in 2000 in Seattle, Washington. It
has since grown to more than 220 staff members, including eleven faculty members
and laboratory groups. It has established facilities for DNA sequencing, genotyping,
DNA arrays and cell separations.
The Institute developed as a result of the new research model called systems biology, a
revolutionary approach to analyzing biological complexity and understanding how
biological systems function.
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The Institute has brought together a multidisciplinary
group of scholars and scientists, from biologists,
mathematicians and engineers, to computer scientists
and physicists, in an interactive and collaborative
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2) The Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG®):
As systems biology continues to move forward, the National Cancer Institute (NCI)
identified the need in 2003 for an informatics initiative of unprecedented scope for the
biomedical community in recognition of three factors:
- The growing clinical and economic burden of cancer;
- The transformation of research catalyzed by the molecular revolution and
multiple genomics technologies that were generating massive amounts of data;
and
- The recognition that the "essential unity" of research and clinical care had
powerful potential to improve the outcomes of all cancers, as it had done in the
field of pediatric oncology.
For more information on the history of caBIG®, http://cabig.cancer.gov
3) GeneGo's MetaCore is an integrated "knowledge-based" platform for pathway
analysis of OMICs data and gene lists with easy to use, intuitive tools for data
visualization and analysis plus workflows with reports. This is a systems biology and
pathway analysis approach to drug discovery and the software can be purchased
online.
4) Systems Biology (A Portal Site for Systems Biology): This is a website aimed to
provide information and tools needed to understand systems biology. Examples of
information on this website are:
(1) Links to biological databases, research groups, conferences
(2) Software tools
(3) Protocols of biological experiments
(4) Publications.
5) BMC Systems Biology: This is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed
research articles in systems-level analysis of biological events, whether
experimental or theoretical, at the level of molecules, cells or organisms.
CISN Summary:
"Looking at the genome won't tell you much about the downstream function, but
looking at the metabolome won't tell you much about the underlying regulation. It's the whole integration (system biology) that's important". - Teresa Fan, University of
Louisville, Kentucky
