Systems biology history

Two approaches can be distinguished in systems biology top-down and bottom-up [7, 8], They relate to the different histories of the biological sciences [9]. They have in common that they aim to understand how the properties of systems (or networks) as a whole derive from the properties and the interactions between their molecular constituents. Such networks may include signaling, genetic, and metabolic networks. The approaches differ in their perspective, in the size of the networks they consider, and in their precision. And, the two methods are used to different purposes. 

A reasonable ambition for model reactions is that their mechanisms ought to contain some dues about the mechanism of the enzyme-catalyzed reaction also. It has long been realized that it is fruitless simply to buUd the model-reaction mechanism into an enzyme active site. Such a procedure would entail the view that the factors present and at work in the model system render a complete account of the biological history of the enzyme. There is no reason to expect this to be so, and many reasons to think it would not be so. In the simplest sense, a given enzyme must occupy a niche in a metabolic network that may require its regulation and may influence its structure and mechanistic potentialities in ways that cannot be derived from non-enzymic studies. 

Until the latter part of the twentieth century, we also find the evolution of program management within the history of organization development. Gharajedaghi identified three types of organizational constmcts that trace the latter [8] mindless system (mechanical model), uni-minded system (biological model), multi-minded system (sociocultural model). He introduced two modes of inquiry for each of these models to create six sub-models of organization. His modes of inquiry referred to the analytical approach, focused on independent variables, and on the systems approach, focused on interdependent variables. 

To formulate a model is to put together pieces of knowledge about a particular system into a consistent pattern that can form the basis for (1) interpretation of the past history of the system and (2) prediction of the future of the system. To be credible and useful, any model of a physical, chemical or biological system must rely on both scientific fundamentals and observations of the world around us. High-quality observational data are the basis upon which our understanding of the environment rests. However, observations themselves are not very useful unless the results can be interpreted in some kind of model. Thus observations and modeling go hand in hand. 

Only against this background can we turn to living cells to examine them as systems. We shall presume that the steps in understanding any chemical system, living or dead, have to be the same, and with the above history of chemistry behind us and the future of biology in front of us, we can state them clearly as follows ... 

Five-Year History of a Biologically Based Treatment System that Treats High Concentrations of Effluent from an Industrial (Smelter Operation)... 

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