Systems Biology

The Center’s singular focus on global infectious diseases and its integration of systems biology uniquely positions us in the fight against infectious diseases.

Why Systems Biology?

The Center develops and employs systems biology approaches to accelerate progress in the development of vaccines to prevent, drugs to treat, and diagnostics to detect lethal and debilitating infectious diseases.

Systems biology addresses that fact that all components of living cells and organisms work together as a unit. In biology, like in any complex system, the “whole” is greater than the sum of its parts. In biology, the characteristics that emerge from the combined properties and interactions of the component parts include growth and reproduction of cells and organisms, consciousness, and cognition. In the case of an infectious disease, there is a complex interplay between the infectious agent and the human host.

Systems biology allows us to discover the workings of the infectious agents and how they cause disease and how the host responds to defend itself from infection. With this knowledge, we can develop vaccines to prevent infection or disease or discover drugs to cure the infection.

What is Systems Biology?

Advances in laboratory technologies and computing have recently progressed to a level that allows us to investigate, in a comprehensive manner, infectious disease problems. Thus, systems biology exploits sophisticated ‘omics (e.g. proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, etc.) and other technologies to identify and quantify all molecular elements at play in both the pathogen and the host during an infection. Statistical and computational approaches are used to integrate that information into graphical network models that represent the complex and dynamic molecular interactions underlying the battle. Mathematical equations and formulae in computer algorithms are then used to explain and predict the system's emergent behaviors and to design changes to the system that will tip the balance in favor of the host.

The systems biology approach offers a comprehensive look at the interactions between pathogen and host. Through this extensive view, we can use algorithms to identify changes that favor the host. This becomes the foundation for rational designs for vaccines and drugs.