Sysbio at SLU

Hosted by the Aurora Lab at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Systems Biology is a multidisciplinary and integrative approach that: Addresses the Complexity of Biological Systems: Biological systems are complex (defined as the amount of information required to recapitulate the system). Complexity arises because biological systems have a large number of components, which have many interactions that (often) behave non-linearly. A system refers to a set of components that have a predictable behavior. This behavior can be measured by perturbing the system with an input and measuring the output (i.e. the phenotype). The cell will respond to the input, iff it has a sensor (i.e. a receptor) that can detect the input (directly or indirectly). In biological systems, the components are DNA, RNAs, proteins and metabolites. Requires iterative cycles of "wet" and "dry" experiments: The wet refers to laboratory measurements and the dry part of the cycle refers to computational (i.e. statistical and mathematical) modeling. Iteration is required because of the complexity and the interdependence between the components. The wet experiments serve to generate data for the computational models and the computational models serve to generate hypotheses for the laboratory experiments to test. Requires Quantitative measurements: While quantitative measurements are not exclusive to systems biology approaches, computational models predicate the measurements be expressed numerically rather than as a qualitative description. Addresses how homeostasis is maintained: An important behavior of biological systems is their tendency to maintain a narrow set of internal conditions under which the system is stable. There are a number of mechanisms that are used to maintain homeostasis in tha face of internal and external changes: Feedback and feed forward regulatory interactions Redundancy and anti-redundancy Compartmentalization and distributed processing Modularity Systems Biology approach uses the tools of Systems Theory to describe the dynamics by which homeostasis is maintained and to describe the underlying design principles of biological systems. The mechanisms can be computationally inferred, or reverse engineered, from the laboratory measurements.	Click image for larger version.
Questions or comments? Email the webmaster	Revised March16th, 2006

Systems Biology is a multidisciplinary and integrative approach that:

Addresses the Complexity of Biological Systems: Biological systems are complex (defined as the amount of information required to recapitulate the system). Complexity arises because biological systems have a large number of components, which have many interactions that (often) behave non-linearly. A system refers to a set of components that have a predictable behavior. This behavior can be measured by perturbing the system with an input and measuring the output (i.e. the phenotype). The cell will respond to the input, iff it has a sensor (i.e. a receptor) that can detect the input (directly or indirectly). In biological systems, the components are DNA, RNAs, proteins and metabolites.
Requires iterative cycles of "wet" and "dry" experiments: The wet refers to laboratory measurements and the dry part of the cycle refers to computational (i.e. statistical and mathematical) modeling. Iteration is required because of the complexity and the interdependence between the components. The wet experiments serve to generate data for the computational models and the computational models serve to generate hypotheses for the laboratory experiments to test.
Requires Quantitative measurements: While quantitative measurements are not exclusive to systems biology approaches, computational models predicate the measurements be expressed numerically rather than as a qualitative description.
Addresses how homeostasis is maintained: An important behavior of biological systems is their tendency to maintain a narrow set of internal conditions under which the system is stable. There are a number of mechanisms that are used to maintain homeostasis in tha face of internal and external changes:
- Feedback and feed forward regulatory interactions
- Redundancy and anti-redundancy
- Compartmentalization and distributed processing
- Modularity

Systems Biology approach uses the tools of Systems Theory to describe the dynamics by which homeostasis is maintained and to describe the underlying design principles of biological systems. The mechanisms can be computationally inferred, or reverse engineered, from the laboratory measurements.