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A Systems Biology Approach to Iron Metabolism

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A Systems Biology Approach to Blood

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 844))

Abstract

Iron is critical to the survival of almost all living organisms. However, inappropriately low or high levels of iron are detrimental and contribute to a wide range of diseases. Recent advances in the study of iron metabolism have revealed multiple intricate pathways that are essential to the maintenance of iron homeostasis. Further, iron regulation involves processes at several scales, ranging from the subcellular to the organismal. This complexity makes a systems biology approach crucial, with its enabling technology of computational models based on a mathematical description of regulatory systems. Systems biology may represent a new strategy for understanding imbalances in iron metabolism and their underlying causes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by Grants NIH R21 CA156133–01A1 (R.L., S.V.T.) and NIH Cancer Biology Training Grant T32-CA079448 (J.C.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cancer Biology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Julia Chifman

  2. Center for Quantitative Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, USA

    Reinhard Laubenbacher

  3. Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Ave., 06030-3305, Farmington, CT, USA

    Suzy V. Torti

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  1. Julia Chifman
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  2. Reinhard Laubenbacher
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  3. Suzy V. Torti
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Correspondence to Suzy V. Torti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Pediatrics and Cell & Molecular Biology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Seth Joel Corey

  2. Department of Statistics, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA

    Marek Kimmel

  3. Northwestern University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Evanston, Illinois, USA

    Joshua N. Leonard

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Chifman, J., Laubenbacher, R., Torti, S. (2014). A Systems Biology Approach to Iron Metabolism. In: Corey, S., Kimmel, M., Leonard, J. (eds) A Systems Biology Approach to Blood. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 844. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2095-2_10

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