Still others fail to fully appreciate its usefulness because it lacks a concise, unified definition. Eliot) “follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent,” systems biology has scared away more than a few researchers. Yet with its complicated flow charts that can (in the words of T.S. It’s in stark contrast to decades of reductionist biology, which involves taking the pieces apart. Systems biology is an approach in biomedical research to understanding the larger picture-be it at the level of the organism, tissue, or cell-by putting its pieces together. But ask five biomedical researchers to define systems biology, and you’ll get 10 different answers. The interactome is considered an essential systems biology resource.Īsk five different astrophysicists to define a black hole, the saying goes, and you’ll get five different answers. The above illustration depicts an interactome, the whole set of molecular interactions in cells.

It used to be as simple as “the knee bone connected to the thigh bone.” Now scientists use systems biology approaches to understand the big picture of how all the pieces interact in an organism.

Seth Berger, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

What is biology