Multi-scale methodology: a key to deciphering systems biology

Front Biosci. 2005 Jan 1:10:961-5. doi: 10.2741/1590. Print 2005 Jan 1.

Abstract

Presently, it is widely accepted complex systems couldn't be comprehended by studying parts in isolation without examining integrative and emergent properties, and system-level understanding thus has become the focus in biological science. However, it should also be noted that common systematic analysis was restricted to large-scale analysis at a certain level, while the facts that the nature of complex systems is their multi-scale structures was usually neglected or ignored. Therefore, this paper described a multi-scale methodology to investigate the nature of biological complexity and prospected this methodology could lead to a promising revolution in current system-level understanding and the integration of molecular biology databases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biology / methods
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological
  • Molecular Biology
  • Systems Biology / methods*
  • Systems Integration