BioinformaticsOnline

Complex systems are often networked, and biology is no exception. The follow-up experiments to the genome sequencing projects are showing that molecules in living things are also highly connected, which helps to explain how such great complexity can be achieved by a comparatively small set of molecules. Thus, the many thousands of biomolecular interactions that are now known represent a powerful dataset for interrogating all aspects of biology. Although there has traditionally been cynicism about the possibility of re-designing systems behaviour by tinkering with pathways and targeting interactions with small-molecules, much exciting recent research suggests that this is now possible.