Perspectives on systems biology

Systems biology is a new field in biology that aims at system-level understanding of biological systems, such as cells and organisms. Molecular biology has already made remarkable contribution to our understanding of biological systems, and its current focus is on the identification of genes and the functions of their products; that is, on the components of systems. There is no doubt that molecular biology will progress even faster and finally identify all the components of biological systems. As such a moment approaches, major importance need to be placed on the establishment of methodologies and techniques that enable us to understand biological systems as systems. This paper overviews the field of systems biology.