微生物系统生物学

系统生物学是生物学中一个新的领域，在系统水平研究和理解生物学系统。如果说分子生物学已经引领我们不断深入地理解生物学系统，系统生物学则着眼于对基因、基因产物及其功能的研究。所有这些构成了整个系统，而分子生物学知识仅构成理解系统生物学的框架。系统生物学的基本问题是，     

21世纪的生物学--系统生物学

2003年9月,美国哈佛大学医学院开设了20年来新增的第一个研究组——系统生物学(systems biology)研究室,显示了系统生物学在医学和生物学领域中的重要地位。系统生物学是近年来发展最快的生物医学领域,其研究前景被广泛看好,它已成为生物学的重要分支之一。除哈佛大学外,同城的麻省理工学院,已率先建立了一个由80个研究和教学职位组成的以系统生物学为主的研究机构。     

合成生物学展望

21世纪生命科学将因系统生物学和合成生物学而进入新的发展时期,系统生物学使生命科学由实验科学转变为定量、预测的系统科学,而合成生物学是在系统生物学基础上进一步把生命科学推向工程科学．把系统生物学研究的天然元件、模块、网络、系统转变为工程化的元件、模块、网络用以构建具备各种功能的生物装置和生物体。     

系统生物学——生命科学的新领域

系统生物学是继基因组学、蛋白质组学之后一门新兴的生物学交叉学科,代表21世纪生物学的未来.最近,系统生物学研究机构纷纷成立.在研究上,了解一个复杂的生物系统需要整合实验和计算方法.基因组学和蛋白质组学中的高通量方法为系统生物学发展提供了大量的数据.计算生物学通过数据处理、模型构建和理论分析,成为系统生物学发展的一个必不可缺、强有力的工具.在应用上,系统生物学代表新一代医药开发和疾病防治的方向.     

系统生物学的研究进展

系统生物学以系统的观点．运用工程和计算机技术及各种先进的生物学研究手段研究细胞中所有基因和蛋白质,来解释生命的奥秘。系统生物学是在基因组序列的基础上完成由生命密码到生命过程的研究,了解系统的结构和功能,揭示系统内部各组成成分的相互作用和运行规律。从系统生物学的产生背景、发展现状和研究目标、研究平台、研究动态等方面综述了系统生物学的研究。     

心血管系统生物学研究进展

在后基因组时代中,系统生物学是最受关注的领域之一.系统医学生物学是系统生物学的一个重要的分支和组成部分,主要研究的对象是人体、疾病和防治措施.由于心血管疾病突出的重要性,研究人员正致力于心血管系统生物学的研究.本文综述了心血管系统生物学主要的研究课题,总结了用以整合数据的方法和策略,心血管系统模型的类型和应用,建模的工具和标准,未来的发展方向,以及心血管系统生物学可能将面临的一些挑战.     

加强合成生物学研究发展生物产业——访中国科学院上海生命科学院杨胜利院士

<生物产业技术>:作为一门新生的学科,合成生物学近年来研究进展很快.请您简单介绍一下合成生物学发展历程. 杨院士:合成生物学是生命科学的一个新分支,它与系统生物学是密切相关的.生命科学研究经历不同的发展阶段,最早的生物学我们现在叫宏观生物学,包括分类、形态,随着科技水平的提高,从宏观逐步转向微观,逐渐从机体、器官、组织、细胞到基因、蛋白质.     

多组学技术及其在生命科学研究中应用概述

随着新一代测序技术、高分辨质谱技术、多组学整合分析方法及数据库的发展,组学技术正从传统的单一组学向多组学技术发展。以多组学驱动的系统生物学研究将带来生命科学研究的新范式。本文简要概述了基因组学、表观基因组学、转录组学,蛋白质组学及代谢组学的进展,重点介绍多组学技术平台的组成和功能,多组学技术的应用现状及在合成生物学及生物医学等领域的应用前景。     

系统生物学(Systems Biology)的几大重要问题

近几年来,系统生物学从正式提出到受到普遍关注和研究,对生物学的研究发展起了革命性的变化。主要从系统生物学的发展及其内容进行分析,讨论了生物数据整合,模型建立和模拟分析等几点关键性的问题,并展望了系统生物学的研究。     

系统生物学--后基因组时代的生物学

随着人类基因组计划的完成,生物学已由微观的分子研究转向生物整体性研究,系统生物学应运而生。讨论了系统生物学的产生、特点、研究内容和方法。     

传统中国医药与现代系统生物学研究理论的殊途同归

系统生物学是研究一个生物系统中所有组成成分(基因、mRNA、蛋白质等)的构成与组分之间相互关系的学科,近年来,系统生物学作为后基因组学时代研究的一个重要内容,已广泛深入到生命科学和医药学的各个领域。而作为中国传统医学而言,似乎与之相去甚远,然而当我们对这两个新老学科基础理论进行比较时,我们发现:传统中国医药与现代系统生物学研究理论的殊途同归。有鉴于此,本文论述了系统生物学和中医学的思想起源、相互联系,基于系统生物学的发展、研究思路和方法,阐述了生物学由还原论的研究方法过渡到系统论的研究方法,强调对生命现象从系统和整体的层次进行研究和把握,对传统中医学研究方法的变革起到了推动作用,最后对系统生物学在中医药学未来发展进行了评价。     

Circular causality in integrative multi-scale systems biology and its interaction with traditional medicine

This paper discusses the concept of circular causality in “biological relativity” (Noble, Interface Focus. 2, 56-64, 2012) in the context of integrative and multi-scale systems approaches to biology. It also discusses the relationship between systems biology and traditional medicine (sometimes called scholarly medical traditions) mainly from East Asia and India. Systems biology helps illuminate circular processes identified in traditional medicine, while the systems concept of attractors in complex systems will also be important in analysing dynamic balance in the body processes that traditional medicine is concerned with. Ways of nudging disordered processes towards good attractors through the use of traditional medicines can lead to the development of new ways not only of curing disease but also of its prevention. Examples are given of cost-effective multi-component remedies that use integrative ideas derived from traditional medicine.     

Systems Biology,Systems Medicine,Systems Pharmacology: The What and The Why

Systems biology is today such a widespread discipline that it becomes difficult to propose a clear definition of what it really is. For some, it remains restricted to the genomic field. For many, it designates the integrated approach or the corpus of computational methods employed to handle the vast amount of biological or medical data and investigate the complexity of the living. Although defining systems biology might be difficult, on the other hand its purpose is clear: systems biology, with its emerging subfields systems medicine and systems pharmacology, clearly aims at making sense of complex observations/experimental and clinical datasets to improve our understanding of diseases and their treatments without putting aside the context in which they appear and develop. In this short review, we aim to specifically focus on these new subfields with the new theoretical tools and approaches that were developed in the context of cancer. Systems pharmacology and medicine now give hope for major improvements in cancer therapy, making personalized medicine closer to reality. As we will see, the current challenge is to be able to improve the clinical practice according to the paradigm shift of systems sciences.     

Gene module level analysis: identification to networks and dynamics

Nature exhibits modular design in biological systems. Gene module level analysis is based on this module concept, aiming to understand biological network design and systems behavior in disease and development by emphasizing on modules of genes rather than individual genes. Module level analysis has been extensively applied in genome wide level analysis, exploring the organization of biological systems from identifying modules to reconstructing module networks and analyzing module dynamics. Such module level perspective provides a high level representation of the regulatory scenario and design of biological systems, promising to revolutionize our view of systems biology, genetic engineering as well as disease mechanisms and molecular medicine.     

Ins and Outs of Systems Biology vis-à-vis Molecular Biology: Continuation or Clear Cut?

The comprehension of living organisms in all their complexity poses a major challenge to the biological sciences. Recently, systems biology has been proposed as a new candidate in the development of such a comprehension. The main objective of this paper is to address what systems biology is and how it is practised. To this end, the basic tools of a systems biological approach are explored and illustrated. In addition, it is questioned whether systems biology ‘revolutionizes’ molecular biology and ‘transcends’ its assumed reductionism. The strength of this claim appears to depend on how molecular and systems biology are characterised and on how reductionism is interpreted. Doing credit to molecular biology and to methodological reductionism, it is argued that the distinction between molecular and systems biology is gradual rather than sharp. As such, the classical challenge in biology to manage, interpret and integrate biological data into functional wholes is further intensified by systems biology’s use of modelling and bioinformatics, and by its scale enlargement.     

Systems biology in animal sciences

Systems biology is a rapidly expanding field of research and is applied in a number of biological disciplines. In animal sciences, omics approaches are increasingly used, yielding vast amounts of data, but systems biology approaches to extract understanding from these data of biological processes and animal traits are not yet frequently used. This paper aims to explain what systems biology is and which areas of animal sciences could benefit from systems biology approaches. Systems biology aims to understand whole biological systems working as a unit, rather than investigating their individual components. Therefore, systems biology can be considered a holistic approach, as opposed to reductionism. The recently developed 'omics' technologies enable biological sciences to characterize the molecular components of life with ever increasing speed, yielding vast amounts of data. However, biological functions do not follow from the simple addition of the properties of system components, but rather arise from the dynamic interactions of these components. Systems biology combines statistics, bioinformatics and mathematical modeling to integrate and analyze large amounts of data in order to extract a better understanding of the biology from these huge data sets and to predict the behavior of biological systems. A 'system' approach and mathematical modeling in biological sciences are not new in itself, as they were used in biochemistry, physiology and genetics long before the name systems biology was coined. However, the present combination of mass biological data and of computational and modeling tools is unprecedented and truly represents a major paradigm shift in biology. Significant advances have been made using systems biology approaches, especially in the field of bacterial and eukaryotic cells and in human medicine. Similarly, progress is being made with 'system approaches' in animal sciences, providing exciting opportunities to predict and modulate animal traits.     

Systems biology,emergence and antireductionism

This study explores the conceptual history of systems biology and its impact on philosophical and scientific conceptions of reductionism, antireductionism and emergence. Development of systems biology at the beginning of 21st century transformed biological science. Systems biology is a new holistic approach or strategy how to research biological organisms, developed through three phases. The first phase was completed when molecular biology transformed into systems molecular biology. Prior to the second phase, convergence between applied general systems theory and nonlinear dynamics took place, hence allowing the formation of systems mathematical biology. The second phase happened when systems molecular biology and systems mathematical biology, together, were applied for analysis of biological data. Finally, after successful application in science, medicine and biotechnology, the process of the formation of modern systems biology was completed.Systems and molecular reductionist views on organisms were completely opposed to each other. Implications of systems and molecular biology on reductionist–antireductionist debate were quite different. The analysis of reductionism, antireductionism and emergence issues, in the era of systems biology, revealed the hierarchy between methodological, epistemological and ontological antireductionism. Primarily, methodological antireductionism followed from the systems biology. Only after, epistemological and ontological antireductionism could be supported.     

Pharmacogenomics and systems biology of membrane transporters

Membrane transporters are essential for fundamental cellular functions and normal physiological processes. These molecules influence drug absorption and distribution, and play key roles in drug therapeutic effects. A primary goal of current research in drug discovery and development is to fully understand the interaction between transporters and drugs at both system level and individual level for personalized therapy. Pharmacogenomics studies the genetic basis of the individual variations in response to drug therapy, whereas systems biology provides the understanding of biological processes at the system level. The integration of pharmacogenomics with systems biology in membrane transporter study is necessary to solve complex problems in diseases and drug effects. Such integration provides insight to key issues of pharmacogenomics and systems biology of membrane transporters. These key issues include the correlations between structure and function, genotype and phenotype, and systematic interactions between different transporters, between transporters and other proteins, and between transporters and drugs. The exploration in these key issues may ultimately contribute to the personalized medicine with high efficacy but less toxicity, which is the overall goal of pharmacogenomics and systems biology.