title: The State of Systems Genetics in 2017.
abstract: Cell Systems invited 16 experts to share their views on the field of systems genetics. In questions repeated in the headings, we asked them to define systems genetics, highlight its relevance to researchers outside the field, discuss what makes a strong systems genetics paper, and paint a picture of where the field is heading in the coming years. Their responses, ordered by the journal but otherwise unedited, make it clear that deciphering genotype to phenotype relationships is a central challenge of systems genetics and will require understanding how networks and higher-order properties of biological systems underlie complex traits. In addition, our experts illuminate the applications and relevance of systems genetics to human disease, the gut microbiome, development of tools that connect the global research community, sustainability, drug discovery, patient-specific disease and network models, and personalized treatments. Finally, a table of suggested reading provides a sample of influential work in the field.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Nitin S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Baliga
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA; Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Vascular Biology Unit, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Physiology, Institute of Biomedicine and Translation Medicine, University of Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Johan L M
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Björkegren
authors.affiliation: Institute for Systems Genetics, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Jef D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Boeke
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Heidelberg University, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boutros
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Nigel P S
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.affiliation: Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: Aimée M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dudley
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, 22908, USA.
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Farber
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Allan I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Levey
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine; Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics; Department of Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Aldons J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lusis
authors.affiliation: Cell Systems, Cell Press, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: cmak@cell.com.
authors.forename: H Craig
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.affiliation: Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Nadeau
authors.affiliation: Institute for Systems Genetics, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Marcus B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Noyes
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders Program and Centre for Computational Biology, Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Petretto
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Seyfried
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany; Stanford Genome Technology Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA; Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Lars M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Steinmetz
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sibylle C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Vonesch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055808:Drug Discovery; D005823:Genetics / Q000639:trends*; D023281:Genomics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance; D010641:Phenotype; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*