[Systems biology: from yesterday's concepts to tomorrow's discoveries].
The idea that genes and their products are the fundamental units of biology has profoundly influenced our scientific thinking during the second half of the past century. Today, this reductionism is challenged by a renaissance of a systems understanding of biology, focusing on the systems formed by interacting gene products rather than on individual gene products. This discipline, based on a complementary and more holistic approach, keeps expanding its scope thanks to biotechnological innovations as well as theoretical modeling. This review aims at showing how and why, since the beginning of the 21st century, in fundamental as well as biomedical research, systems biology is proving a promising paradigm for understanding emerging properties of complex biological systems.
Carvunis
Anne-Ruxandra
AR
Center for cancer systems biology, Department of cancer biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 1, Jimmy Fund Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. anne-ruxandra_carvunis@dfci.harvard.edu
Gomez
Elisa
E
Thierry-Mieg
Nicolas
N
Trilling
Laurent
L
Vidal
Marc
M
D023281:Genomics / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012106:Research / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends*