In the post-genomic era, our attention is turning to how to assemble
the "pieces of the jigsaw puzzle" together into realistic and dynamic
models of complex biological systems, and to try to understand what may
be the fundamental principles governing how cells, organs and organisms
have come about, and can evolve. One might say that this is a search
for a biological "theory of everything"! In this talk, we examine some
possible such principles, and how they could be used to infer
computational models from experimental data -- a discipline now
becoming known as "systems biology." Systems biology poses many
interesting experimental and computational challenges. By examining
several illustrative examples we hope to show how it might be possible
to predict the behaviours of complex biological systems. The examples
we choose are: (a) genetic and protein interaction networks at the
intracellular level (b) simulation studies of whole organs, which show
how models at the cellular level can be integrated into complete and
useful models of entire systems such as the heart. We also briefly
examine some of the implications of systems biology for drug discovery,
human health and the environment.
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