Systems Biology: Understanding the Biological Mosaic

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Just what is Systems Biology? The definition depends a great deal on whom you ask. Some define it as the natural follow up from years of genome sequencing and functional genomics: a more holistic and dynamic consideration of data in a “systems” context. Others see it as a scale-up of mathematical biology: mathematical models of small systems have been around for decades, and more data and faster computers now makes it possible to consider bigger ones. Still others see it as a merger of biology with engineering: it is possible to apply many of the principles that go into (say) circuit design to a biological system in a predictive way.

No doubt it is all of these things, though being a new concept it probably still needs some time to find its feet. Indeed, at this point it is probably more of a philosophy than anything that one can easily nail down. But one thing is clear: its time has come. Most everybody agrees that a ‘systems’ view of biology is greatly needed to make the jump between all that we know about individual molecules to what we can understand or predict about a whole system: to combine individual stones to make the complete mosaic. And indeed we are now making the first tentative and clumsy steps towards a holistic understanding of biological systems.

This special issue of FEBS Letters is dedicated to this new and exciting field. We have taken a broad view and as a result have received excellent and varied contributions, ranging from “systems” level data collection, to the analysis of networks or pathways, to simulations of complex systems. We are also happy to include contributions from several scientists on the application of a systems-level perspective to medical and pharmaceutically relevant problems.

We thank all our colleagues for taking the time and contributing to this 2005 perspective on this exciting new field. We believe that there has seldom been such a unifying wave among life scientists. Systems biology, or whatever future generations will brand it, has all the necessary ingredients to coalesce into a scientific rebirth. It is our hope that this issue will contribute, if only in an infinitesimal way, to towards this goal.

Finally, we would like to thank Patricia McCabe, the assistant managing editor of FEBS Letters, who with all the patience and charm in the world managed to coordinate a creative and very busy group of contributors. Without her, the idea of this issue would have remained in the drawer.