A recent development in the field of bioinformatics, systems biology, as defined by the Institute of Systems Biology, is the study of biological systems based on the understanding that the sum is greater than the parts.
When defining systems biology, one must keep in mind that a system is made up of several parts, which work together to produce what one may call emergent effects. For example, an airplane is made up of several different parts that work together to allow it to fly (emergent effect) under the control of a pilot. By that same logic, one may argue that our body is also made up of several million cells, which form tissues, which form organs that work in tandem with each other to create organ systems. Some of these systems include the digestive system, the nervous system, and the excretory system. To understand how a biological system works to produce its emergent effects is what systems biology does!
One can immediately see the benefits of using systems biology to understand how a living organism functions. For starters, we actually have the technology to do so, plus the intelligence and resources to create new technology that helps us understand these systems better- and besides, understanding how a system works in its entirety is better than understanding the function of each component part, which is tedious and time-consuming. James R. Valcourt, author of 'Systematic: How Systems Biology Is Transforming Modern Medicine,' alleges that if one tried to buy as many gumballs as there are cells in the human body, they would be able to fill Fenway Park in Boston a thousand times over, and the cost of those gumballs would equal the Gross Domestic Product of Russia. You see the time involved in studying each individual cell would be far too long.
Systems biology can also be understood as a correlation between biology, math, physics and computer science. As more biological systems are discovered, new technologies are invented to analyze them, and algorithms are built to predict their emergent effects. This may also be useful in predicting and combating several diseases, like cancer.
When I was researching this fascinating new concept, I realized something; just as we are composed of several different systems, so are plants! Systems biology can be applied to plants just as much as it can be applied to humans. After all, plants are composed of billions of cells, including proteins, DNA, and RNA, just like we are- so it only makes sense to study plants in a systems biology perspective as well.
Apparently, that's also what Vincent Chiang and Jack Wang at the University of North Carolina thought as well. Recently, they along with their team of researchers crafted a systems biology model that mimics the process of wood formation- which allows them to predict the outcome of switching on or off the twenty-one or so genes involved in producing a primary component of wood called lignin. Lignin is imperative when it comes to strengthening timber, but more obstructive than helpful when it comes to utilizing wood for manufacturing bio-fuel, pulp and paper. Before the appearance of this model, scientists had had to remove the lignin with harsh and expensive chemical treatments; but with this model, it is very simple to predict the outcome of modifying the genetic makeup of the wood in order to produce the kind meant for manufacturing timber, which is lignin-rich, or the kind meant for manufacturing pulp and paper, which is devoid of lignin.
When defining systems biology, one must keep in mind that a system is made up of several parts, which work together to produce what one may call emergent effects. For example, an airplane is made up of several different parts that work together to allow it to fly (emergent effect) under the control of a pilot. By that same logic, one may argue that our body is also made up of several million cells, which form tissues, which form organs that work in tandem with each other to create organ systems. Some of these systems include the digestive system, the nervous system, and the excretory system. To understand how a biological system works to produce its emergent effects is what systems biology does!
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| A diagrammatic representation of systems biology. |
One can immediately see the benefits of using systems biology to understand how a living organism functions. For starters, we actually have the technology to do so, plus the intelligence and resources to create new technology that helps us understand these systems better- and besides, understanding how a system works in its entirety is better than understanding the function of each component part, which is tedious and time-consuming. James R. Valcourt, author of 'Systematic: How Systems Biology Is Transforming Modern Medicine,' alleges that if one tried to buy as many gumballs as there are cells in the human body, they would be able to fill Fenway Park in Boston a thousand times over, and the cost of those gumballs would equal the Gross Domestic Product of Russia. You see the time involved in studying each individual cell would be far too long.
Systems biology can also be understood as a correlation between biology, math, physics and computer science. As more biological systems are discovered, new technologies are invented to analyze them, and algorithms are built to predict their emergent effects. This may also be useful in predicting and combating several diseases, like cancer.
When I was researching this fascinating new concept, I realized something; just as we are composed of several different systems, so are plants! Systems biology can be applied to plants just as much as it can be applied to humans. After all, plants are composed of billions of cells, including proteins, DNA, and RNA, just like we are- so it only makes sense to study plants in a systems biology perspective as well.
Apparently, that's also what Vincent Chiang and Jack Wang at the University of North Carolina thought as well. Recently, they along with their team of researchers crafted a systems biology model that mimics the process of wood formation- which allows them to predict the outcome of switching on or off the twenty-one or so genes involved in producing a primary component of wood called lignin. Lignin is imperative when it comes to strengthening timber, but more obstructive than helpful when it comes to utilizing wood for manufacturing bio-fuel, pulp and paper. Before the appearance of this model, scientists had had to remove the lignin with harsh and expensive chemical treatments; but with this model, it is very simple to predict the outcome of modifying the genetic makeup of the wood in order to produce the kind meant for manufacturing timber, which is lignin-rich, or the kind meant for manufacturing pulp and paper, which is devoid of lignin.
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| The rather complex systems biology model that mimics wood formation. |
Jack Wang states, "The complexity of biological pathways is such that it’s no longer sufficient to look at small-scale, independent analysis of one or two genes. We should use a systems biology approach to look at entire pathway-wide or organism-wide analysis at a systems level, to understand how individual genes, proteins and other components work together to regulate a property or a behavior."
This study also endeavored to showcase the utility in systems-level plant research, and the minds behind it hope that it will inspire similar kinds of research in different species of plant.
In conclusion, I state that networks are what I believe to be important to analyze in this day and age. It is simply not enough to study just one part of the network when analyzing any biological network. To fully understand the complexities underlying life and how it works, I believe systems biology to be the imperative master key, and that its holistic approach is more effective in understanding and predicting state transitions in biological systems.
Interesting article. It shows that the author has taken lot of efforts in collecting useful information.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much aaba... your compliments are really encouraging.
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