Integrative
Approach
 (Bioinformatics,
Systems Science, modeling & simulation)
cell slide
20th Century
Biology
Reconstructing Cellular Functions
21th Century
Biology
Reductionistic
Approach
(Genome Sequencing,
DNA arrays, proteomics)
However, it is becoming clear that we need to reverse the process, and to study how these components interact to form complex systems.

This poses the question, given the complete genomic sequence, is it possible to reconstruct the functions of a cellular or biological system.

The process of reconstructing the biological system from the reductionist information will rely on bioinformatics to identify the “parts catalogue” if you will.

However, the parts catalogue does not contain functional information.  for example, listing all the parts of car, does not even begin to describe the how the  the automobile works.

Therefore, to understand multigenic functions, a systems science analysis is required.