BioSystems Review 9 Systems Biology: Discovering the Dynamic Behavior of Biochemical Networks

Abstract: Systems theory and cell biology have enjoyed a long relationship, which, in the context of systems biology, has received renewed interest in recent years. Systems biology is concerned with the dynamic behavior of biochemical reaction networks within cells and in cell populations. The biologist’s conceptual frameworks, in which to identify the variables of a biochemical reaction network and to describe their relationships, are pathway maps. A principal goal of systems biology is therefore to turn these static maps into dynamical models. This paper introduces systems biology with the aim of unraveling the dynamic behavior of a biochemical network from different perspectives. Focusing on systems theoretic investigations into biochemical networks, emerging challenges and perspectives in systems biology are discussed