Recent Advances In Systems Biology Research

Driven by rapid developments in protein and DNA sequencing technologies, systems biology has become an important research paradigm. It is marked by an emphasis on integrating data on multiple scales and creating a framework for developing predictive models that are valid across the spectrum of structural hierarchies found in biological systems. This book consists of fourteen original chapters and an introduction that together provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject starting from discussions of its definition and scope and ending in detailed reviews of how the systems approach is affecting clinical research and practice. Most chapters are written to be accessible to a wide readership and contain references to the latest research. Altogether, this is a state-of-the-art description of the present and future of systems biology.

This textbook has been conceptualized to provide a detailed description of the various aspects of Systems and Synthetic Biology, keeping the requirements of M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in mind. Also, it is hoped that this book will mentor young scientists who are willing to contribute to this area but do not know from where to begin. The book has been divided into two sections. The first section will deal with systems biology – in terms of the foundational understanding, highlighting issues in biological complexity, methods of analysis and various aspects of modelling. The second section deals with the engineering concepts, design strategies of the biological systems ranging from simple DNA/RNA fragments, switches and oscillators, molecular pathways to a complete synthetic cell will be described. Finally, the book will offer expert opinions in legal, safety, security and social issues to present a well-balanced information both for students and scientists.

"This book presents new techniques that have resulted from the application of computer science methods to the organization and interpretation of biological data, covering three subject areas: bioinformatics, computational biology, and computational systems biology"--

The International Society for Systems Biology (ISSB) is a society aimed at advancing world-wide systems biology research by providing a forum for scientific discussions and various academic services. The ISSB helps coordinate researchers to form alliances for meeting the unique needs of multidisciplinary and international systems biology research. The annual International Conference on Systems Biology (ICSB) serves as the main meeting for the society and is one of the largest academic and commercial gatherings under the broad heading of Systems Biology ."

This book addresses the design of emerging conceptual tools, technologies and systems including novel synthetic parts, devices, circuits, oscillators, biological gates, and small regulatory RNAs (riboregulators and riboswitches), which serve as versatile control elements for regulating gene expression. Synthetic biology, a rapidly growing field that involves the application of engineering principles in biology, is now being used to develop novel systems for a wide range of applications including diagnostics, cell reprogramming, therapeutics, enzymes, vaccines, biomaterials, biofuels, fine chemicals and many more. The book subsequently summarizes recent developments in technologies for assembling synthetic genomes, minimal genomes, synthetic biology toolboxes, CRISPR-Cas systems, cell-free protein synthesis systems and microfluidics. Accordingly, it offers a valuable resource not only for beginners in synthetic biology, but also for researchers, students, scientists, clinicians, stakeholders and policymakers interested in the potential held by synthetic biology.

This collective monograph aims at contributing to an improved understanding of the epistemic presumptions, sociocultural implications and historically backgrounds of the newly emerging and currently expanding approach of systems biology. In doing so, it offers empirically grounded, valuable and reflexive information about a paradigmatic shift in the biosciences for a wide range of scientists working in the interdisciplinary areas of systems biology, synthetic biology, molecular biology, biology, the philosophy of science, the sociology of science and scientific knowledge, science and technology studies, technology assessment and the like. The authors of this monograph share the theoretical methodological premise that science is a culturally and socially embedded practice which characterizes our culture as a scientific one and at the same time draws its innovative potential from its socio-cultural context. This dialectic relationship lies at the heart of the current development of systems biology which is conceived as a so-called successor of ‘-omics’ research and triggered by high-throughput information technologies. At the same time a need for a holistic conceptualization of complex biological processes emerges. The title Contextualizing Systems Biology suggests that this book analyzes the development and advent of systems biology from different theoretical and methodological perspectives. We investigate a variety of contexts ranging from the analysis of cognitive contexts (such as basic theoretical concepts) to regulative contexts (policies) to the concrete application of a systems biology in the socio-scientific context of a European research project. In empirically analyzing these different and interrelated layers and dimensions of systems biology, the scope of the book goes beyond present attempts to investigate the advent of new approaches in the biological sciences as it frames and assesses systems biology from an interdisciplinary and integrated perspective.

This book explores Systems Biology as the understanding of biological network behaviors, and in particular their dynamic aspects, which requires the utilization of mathematical modeling tightly linked to experiment. A variety of approaches are discussed here: the identification and validation of networks, the creation of appropriate datasets, the development of tools for data acquisition and software development, and the use of modeling and simulation software in close concert with experiment.

The rapidly developing field of systems biology is influencing many aspects of biological research and is expected to transform biomedicine. Some emerging offshoots and specialized branches in systems biology are receiving particular attention and are becoming highly active areas of research. This collection of invited reviews describes some of the latest cutting-edge experimental and computational advances in these emerging sub-fields of systems biology. In particular, this collection focuses on the study of mammalian embryonic stem cells; new technologies involving mass-spectrometry proteomics; single cell measurements; methods for modeling complex stochastic systems; network-based classification algorithms; and the revolutionary emerging field of systems pharmacology.