Editorial

Molecular systems biology at the crossroads: to know less about more, or to know more about less?

Martin Latterich

Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 2B2, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Proteome Science 2005, 3:8doi:10.1186/1477-5956-3-8

Published:	28 October 2005

Abstract

Systems biology is a rapidly evolving discipline that endeavours to understand the detailed coordinated workings of entire organisms, with the ultimate goal to detect differences between health and disease, or to understand how cells or entire organisms react to the environment. The editorial provides a critical evaluation of what molecular systems analysis can and cannot accomplish with existing methodologies, and how systems biology needs to merge with reductionism to yield a more comprehensive and mechanistically insightful model of a cell or organism.