Systems biology approach to developing "systems therapeutics"

ACS Med Chem Lett. 2014 Mar 6;5(5):453-5. doi: 10.1021/ml5000614. eCollection 2014 May 8.

Abstract

The standard drug development model uses reductionist approaches to discover small molecules targeting one pathway. Although systems biology analyzes multiple pathways, the approach is often used to develop a small molecule interacting at only one pathway in the system. Similar to that in physics where a departure from the old reductionist "Copenhagen View" of quantum physics to a new and predictive systems based, collective model has emerged yielding new breakthroughs such as the LASER, a new model is emerging in biology where systems biology is used to develop a new technology acting at multiple pathways called "systems therapeutics."