Department of Environment and Primary Prevention, Istituto Superiore di Sanità Rome, Italy.
Nonlinear Physics and Mathematical Modeling Laboratory, University Campus Bio-Medico Rome, Italy ; International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, University Campus Bio-Medico Rome, Italy.
Front Genet. 2014 Apr 8;5:83. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00083. eCollection 2014.
This work deals with the particular nature of network-based approach in biology. We will comment about the shift from the consideration of the molecular layer as the definitive place where causative process start to the elucidation of the among elements (at any level of biological organization they are located) interaction network as the main goal of scientific explanation. This shift comes from the intrinsic nature of networks where the properties of a specific node are determined by its position in the entire network (top-down explanation) while the global network characteristics emerge from the nodes wiring pattern (bottom-up explanation). This promotes a "middle-out" paradigm formally identical to the time honored chemical thought holding big promises in the study of biological regulation.
这项工作涉及生物学中基于网络的方法的特殊性质。我们将评论从将分子层视为因果过程开始的确定位置到阐明作为科学解释主要目标的元素(无论它们位于生物组织的哪个水平)相互作用网络的转变。这种转变来自网络的内在性质,其中特定节点的属性由其在整个网络中的位置决定(自上而下的解释),而全局网络特征则源自节点的布线模式(自下而上的解释)。这促进了“从中间到外”的范式,与传统的化学思维形式上完全相同,在生物调控研究中具有巨大的前景。