Systems biology focuses on interactions within and between the mechanisms that combine to give rise to the function and behaviour of a biological system. To some it is the logical and inevitable next-level understanding that will propel drug discovery from empiricism to mechanism-based rational design. Countless column inches in the scientific press hail systems approaches as the latest weapon to tackle the major challenges of modern medicine. But to others, it is an ill-defined pile-up of '-omics' approaches that in terms of usefulness for drug discovery represents the culmination of all delusions. So it is not a suprise that the pharmaceutical industry remains unconvinced, fearing parallels with the genomics hype and considering the approaches currently impractical.
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