Mind Over Molecule: Activating Biological Demons

摘要

The new vogue for systems biology is an important development. It is time to complement reduc-tionist molecular biology by integrative approaches. But this welcome development is in dangerof losing its way. Many of the early implementations of the approach are very low level, in somecases hardly more than an extension of genomics and bioinformatics. In this paper, I outline somegeneral principles that could form the basis of systems biology as a truly multilevel approach.We need the insights obtained from a higher level analysis in order to succeed at the lower levels.Higher levels in biological systems impose boundary conditions on the lower levels. Without un-derstanding those conditions and their effects, we will be seriously restricted in understanding thelogic of living systems. Sydney Brenner has insisted that "the cell is the correct level of abstrac-tion." I would go further and insist on the value of abstraction at even higher levels than the cell,while recognizing the cell as a landmark level of biological organization. The principles outlinedare illustrated with examples from cardiac and other aspects of physiology and biochemistry.