Systems Biology

Insights into the functioning of living systems is essential for effectively developing medicines and food, for managing infections, as well as for understanding the development and regeneration process in humans, animals and plants, or the design of efficient, sustainable bioproduction processes. Organisms function on the basis of complex interrelated networks of processes over many aggregation levels. Genes, proteins and metabolic products influence each other in the cell, in a system in which many links and feedback mechanisms take place in and between various compartments. Also, cells within an organ and organs within an organism maintain such complex reciprocal relationships with each other. The same applies in effect for organisms in a population and for interactions between populations.

The essence of systems biology is to quantitatively determine how molecules, cells, organelles, organs and organisms cooperate in time and space to allow biological processes to proceed. As a result of (information) technology developments and progress in the ‘omics’ disciplines increasingly more data are becoming available, which will be integrated into computational and theoretical approaches and predictive models. This approach signifies a methodological breakthrough. Systems Biology therefore requires cooperation between biologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, information scientists and medics. The intended national efforts will focus on three application areas: agro/nutrition, pharmaceuticals and bioprocess technology.

This programme links up with the themes of VNO/NCW, the priorities of SenterNovem, the key areas Food & Flowers and Chemistry of the Innovation Platform, the interest of a number of companies and the foresight studies of COS.