SYMBIONIC: A European Initiative on the Systems Biology of the Neuronal Cell

Abstract

To understand how genes, proteins and metabolites make up the whole organism, a systemic view is demanded, that is to conceive genes and proteins more as part of a network than as isolated entities. Molecular function becomes then a function of cellular context and not only an individual property. This change of attitude is accompanied by the recognition that bioinformatics plays an indispensable role in extracting information from the huge amounts of data stemming from recent “-omics” research. Such systemic view of cells demands the capacity to quantitatively predict, rather than simply qualitatively describe, cell behavior. In fact, in parallel with the data-driven research approach that focuses on speedy handling and analyzing of the currently available large-scale data, a new approach called “model-driven research” is gradually gaining power. Model-driven research aims at setting up a biological model by combining the knowledge of the system with related data and simulates the behavior of the system in order to understand its biological mechanisms.