Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Systems biology

  • General / Article
  • Published:
Resonance Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Systems biology seeks to study biological systems as a whole, contrary to the reductionist approach that has dominated biology. Such a view of biological systems emanating from strong foundations of molecular level understanding of the individual components in terms of their form, function and interactions is promising to transform the level at which we understand biology. Systems are defined and abstracted at different levels, which are simulated and analysed using different types of mathematical and computational techniques. Insights obtained from systems level studies readily lend to their use in several applications in biotechnology and drug discovery, making it even more important to study systems as a whole.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Suggested Reading

  1. A Aderem, Systems biology: its practice and challenges, Cell, Vol.121, No.4, pp. 511–513, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. J A Papin, et al., Reconstruction of cellular signalling networks and analysis of their properties, Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol., Vol.6, No.2, pp.99–111, Vol.3, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. T Ideker, T Galitski, and L Hood, A new approach to decoding life: systems biology, Annu. Rev. Genomics Hum. Genet., Vol.2, pp.343–372, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. P W Anderson, More Is Different, Science, Vol.177, No.4047, pp.393–396, 1972.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. L H Hartwell et al, From molecular to modular cell biology, Nature, Vol.402, No.6761 Suppl, pp.C47–52, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. B M Bakker et al, Glycolysis in bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei can be understood in terms of the kinetics of the glycolytic enzymes, J. Biol. Chem., Vol.272, No.6, pp.3207–3215, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. H Jeong et al, Lethality and centrality in protein networks, Nature, Vol.411, No.6833, pp.41–42, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. K J Kauffman, P Prakash, and J S Edwards, Advances in flux balance analysis, Curr. Opin. Biotechnol., Vol.14, No.5, pp.491–496, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. J Stelling, Mathematical models in microbial systems biology, Curr. Opin. Microbiol., Vol.7, pp.513–518, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. A L Barabasi and Z N Oltvai, Network biology: understanding the cell’s functional organization, Nat. Rev. Genet., Vol.5, No.2, pp.101–113, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. H Alper et al, Identifying gene targets for the metabolic engineering of lycopene biosynthesis in Escherichia coli, Metab. Eng., Vol.7, No.3, pp.155–164, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. D Noble, From the Hodgkin-Huxley axon to the virtual heart, J. Physiol., Vol.580,(Pt 1), pp.15–22, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Karthik Raman

  2. Bioinformatics Centre Raman building, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    Nagasuma Chandra

Authors
  1. Karthik Raman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nagasuma Chandra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karthik Raman.

Additional information

Karthik Raman recently completed his PhD in computational systems biology from IISc, Bangalore. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biochemistry, at the University of Zurich. His research interests include the modelling of complex biological networks and the analysis of their robustness and evolvability.

Nagasuma Chandra obtained her PhD in structural biology from the University of Bristol, UK. She serves on the faculty of Bioinformatics at IISc, Bangalore. Her current research interests are in computational systems biology, cell modeling and structural bioinformatics and in applying these to address fundamental issues in drug discovery.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Raman, K., Chandra, N. Systems biology. Reson 15, 131–153 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-010-0015-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-010-0015-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation