A network biology approach to novel therapeutic strategies

Speaker: Professor Patrick Aloy, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Spain

Network and systems biology offer a novel way of approaching drug discovery by developing models that consider the global physiological environment of protein targets, and the effects of modifying them, without losing the key molecular details. Here we review some recent advances in network and systems biology applied to human health, and discus how they can have a big impact on some of the most interesting therapeutic areas. In particular, we claim that network biology will play a central part in the development of novel polypharmacology strategies to fight complex multifactorial diseases, where efficacious therapies will need to center on altering entire pathways rather than single proteins. We briefly present new developments in two areas where we believe network and system biology strategies are more likely to have an immediate contribution: combinatorial therapies in cancer and the identification of drug response markers.