Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
plex manmade networks (i.e., World Wide Web) share the same large-scale to-
pology (see Part II, chapter 4 [by Wuchty, Ravasz, and Barabási], this volume).
The emergence of networks with complex topology as diverse as the cell or the
Internet that are driven by similar self-organizing processes suggests that they
are governed by simple but generic laws. Uncovering these organizing princi-
ples and the role they play in living processes is one of the major goals of post-
genomic biology.
In short, von Bertalanffy gave us a new paradigm for transdisciplinary
thinking and synthesis. Considering the fact that many of our practical problems
have to do with systemic phenomena (development, preservation, function), a
means for system thinking is an essential component of the integration of scien-
tific knowledge. In that respect, systems theory is not meant to be another fin-
ished, unified theory to be verified or falsified and fitted either into the spectrum
of valid scientific data or placed on the shelves of the history of science and left
to the memory of time.
Perhaps this fear is unfounded, as demonstrated by the opening remarks
made at the 3rd International Conference on Systems Biology held at the Karo-
linska Institute in 2003 (Måns Ehrenberg, chair):
The Human Genome Project and recent advances in proteomics and
DNA microarray technology highlight the need for systems-level in-
tegration of experiments and theory in order to understand the logic
of life. This is the ambitious goal for systems biology, the quantita-
tive study of biological processes as integrated systems rather than as
isolated parts (http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.1765703).
What is especially needed is a coherent picture of how this informa-
tion is being used to carry out biological functions.
Parenthetically, the resurgence of a systems approach to biology has been
largely based on the premise, as articulated by Leroy Hood, that systems biology
must be able to capture the digital informational content of the genes and inte-
grate them together into networks so that we may begin to understand the logic
of life.
7.
THE COMPLEX SYSTEMS IN SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
It would seem that we are back at the beginning, but this time with an ear-
nest desire to reassemble the complex collection of molecular-cellular pathways
and networks in order to gain an understanding (i.e., prediction, control, design)
of biology at progressively higher levels of organization. This integrative ap-
proach to systems biology, encompassing genomics, transcriptomics, pro-
