System biology in drug discovery

System biology in drug discovery
Eugene C Butcher, Ellen L Berg & Eric J Kunkel
Nature Biotechnology 2004

There are three principle approach to drug discovery

1. Bottom-up approach: Informatics integration of ‘omics’ data sets


2. Top-down approach: computer modeling of disease or organ system physiology from cell and organ response level information available from literature


3. Direct experimental approach: the use of complex human cell systems themselves to interpret and predict the biological activities of drugs and gene targets

The goal of modeling in system biology is to provide a framework for hypothesis generation and prediction based on in silico simulation of human disease biology across the multiple distance and time scales of an organism.

Reviewer: Kyaw Tun