Abstract
Systems biology seeks to study biological systems as a whole, contrary to the reductionist approach that has dominated biology. Such a view of biological systems emanating from strong foundations of molecular level understanding of the individual components in terms of their form, function and interactions is promising to transform the level at which we understand biology. Systems are defined and abstracted at different levels, which are simulated and analysed using different types of mathematical and computational techniques. Insights obtained from systems level studies readily lend to their use in several applications in biotechnology and drug discovery, making it even more important to study systems as a whole.
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Karthik Raman recently completed his PhD in computational systems biology from IISc, Bangalore. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biochemistry, at the University of Zurich. His research interests include the modelling of complex biological networks and the analysis of their robustness and evolvability.
Nagasuma Chandra obtained her PhD in structural biology from the University of Bristol, UK. She serves on the faculty of Bioinformatics at IISc, Bangalore. Her current research interests are in computational systems biology, cell modeling and structural bioinformatics and in applying these to address fundamental issues in drug discovery.
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Raman, K., Chandra, N. Systems biology. Reson 15, 131–153 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-010-0015-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-010-0015-7