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Systems Biology: The Big Picture Angela Spivey Abstract Systems biology-a field that draws from mathematics, engineering, nanotechnology, and computer science--is poised to take biology to a new level as it offers understanding of the wealth of data flowing from the “omics” fields. Systems biology looks at the data produced by genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics studies, and visualizes how an organism’s biological processes intertwine to produce a whole greater than the sum of its parts. A working model of an entire biological system could impart enormous power for learning how environmental exposures result in disease. Today, practitioners are working to define their field--for example, its terminology and analytical tools--in an attempt to make their efforts pay off. The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
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