Systems Biology
The goal of modern systems biology is to describe and understand the operation of complex biological systems and ultimately to develop predictive models of human disease. “Systems biology” encompasses many different approaches, including the generation and analysis of large scale gene, protein and metabolite datasets; computer modeling of disease or organ system physiology; and the use of complex human cell systems themselves (e.g BioMAP technology) to interpret and predict the biological activities of drugs and gene targets.

Systems biology and drug discovery
”Systems biology” approaches offer the potential to improve decision making in pharmaceutical drug development by accelerating hypothesis-driven biology, the selection and validation of drug targets and lead compounds, and identification of surrogate markers for clinical studies. Complex cell systems technologies, such as BioMAP, integrate a broad range of disease-relevant human biology into the drug discovery process, informing target and compound validation, lead optimization, and clinical indication selection. For further reading, see Butcher EC, Berg EL, Kunkel, EJ. Systems Biology in Drug Discovery (in the Publications section).

People & Places

Computational and Systems Biology, MIT

Jan van der Greef, Leiden, The Netherlands

Leroy Hood, Seattle, WA

Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA

Hiraoki Kitano, Tokyo, Japan

Bernard O. Palsson, La Jolla, CA

QB3: California Institute for Quantiative Biomedical Research

Santa Fe Institute

Systems Biology at PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Systems Biology Institute, Tokyo, Japan
and Systems Biology portal

SystemsX, The Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology

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