title: Introduction: a practical guide to the systems approach in biology.
abstract: This essay provides an informal review of the modern systems-centric biological methodology for the practical researcher. The systems approach is defined, and a generic recipe for employing it in biomedical research is offered. General caveats are discussed that pertain to biological complexity, to explanation in molecular terms, and to bottom-up investigation. An outlook on the development of systems biology is also given.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computational Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Ivan V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Maly
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001695:Biology; D006801:Humans; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*