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Network Medicine: Methods and Applications

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Networks in Systems Biology

Part of the book series: Computational Biology ((COBO,volume 32))

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Abstract

The structure and function of biological systems are determined by a complex network of interactions among cell components. Network medicine offers a toolset for us to systematically explore perturbations in biological networks and to understand how they can spread and affect other cellular processes. In this way, we can have mechanistic insights underlying diseases and phenotypes, evaluate gene function in the context of their molecular interactions, and identify molecular relationships among apparently distinct phenotypes. These tools have also enabled the interpretation of heterogeneity among biological samples, identification of drug targets and drug repurposing as well as biomarker discovery. As our ability to profile biological samples increases, these network-based approaches are fundamental for data integration across the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic sciences. Here, we review and discuss the recent advances in network medicine, exploring the different types of biological networks, several methods, and their applications.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Alberto Paccanaro for his valuable inputs.

Funding

HIN is supported by CNPq (313662/2017-7) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP; grants 2018/14933-2, 2018/21934-5, and 2013/08216-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Complex Network Research, Department of Physics, Northeastern University, 11th Floor, 177 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Italo F. do Valle

  2. Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analyses, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Helder I. Nakaya

  3. Scientific Platform Pasteur USP, São Paulo, Brazil

    Helder I. Nakaya

  4. Av. Prof. Lúcio Martins Rodrigues, 370, block C, 4th floor, São Paulo, SP, 05508-020, Brazil

    Helder I. Nakaya

Authors
  1. Italo F. do Valle
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  2. Helder I. Nakaya
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Correspondence to Helder I. Nakaya .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Scientific Computing Program (PROCC), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabricio Alves Barbosa da Silva

  2. CDTS, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Nicolas Carels

  3. Department of Computational Modeling, National Laboratory of Scientific Computing, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Marcelo Trindade dos Santos

  4. Graduate Program in Nanobiosystems, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Francisco José Pereira Lopes

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do Valle, I.F., Nakaya, H.I. (2020). Network Medicine: Methods and Applications. In: da Silva, F.A.B., Carels, N., Trindade dos Santos, M., Lopes, F.J.P. (eds) Networks in Systems Biology. Computational Biology, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51862-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51862-2_1

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