Systems biology is the
computational and
mathematical modeling of complex
biological systems. An emerging
engineering approach applied to biological scientific research, systems biology is a
biology-based inter-disciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological systems, using a holistic approach (
holism instead of the more traditional
reductionism) to biological research. Particularly from year 2000 onwards, the concept has been used widely in the
biosciences in a variety of contexts. For example, the
Human Genome Project is an example of applied
systems thinking in biology which has led to new, collaborative ways of working on problems in the biological field of genetics. One of the outreaching aims of systems biology is to model and discover
emergent properties, properties of
cells,
tissues and
organisms functioning as a
system whose theoretical description is only possible using techniques which fall under the remit of systems biology. These typically involve
metabolic networks or
cell signaling networks.