Systems biology - an interdisciplinary approach

System-level approaches in biology are not new but foundations of "Systems Biology" are achieved only now at the beginning of the 21 st century [Kitano, H., 2001. Foundations of Systems Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA]. The renewed interest for a system-level approach is linked to the progress in collecting experimental data and to the limits of the "reductionist" approach. System-level understanding of native biological and pathological systems is needed to provide potential therapeutic targets. Examples of interdisciplinary approach in Systems Biology are described in U.S., Japan and Europe. Robustness in biology, metabolic engineering and idiotypic networks are discussed in the framework of Systems Biology. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.