Systems biology is...

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"I really didn't like the early descriptions of systems biology from Hiroaki Kitano and Lee Hood, where their definition of systems biology was, 'We have to measure all of the components over time and then we're going to build a model of the system,'" says Berg, who (with Butcher) founded BioSeek in Burlingame, Calif. To her, the definition should be less exhaustive: "Systems biology has to take advantage of the interactions and complexity of biology." Butcher and Berg argue that cell systems can mark the beginning of a rational drug discovery process.²

So far, the stakeholders in the field have not agreed on a set definition of systems biology. "When you talk about systems biology, it means a lot of things to a lot of people."...