Systems biology and data science in research and translational medicine

Modern systems biology is a foundational scientific capability that integrates advances in biological and computational sciences to elucidate and advance our understand of human biology. By seeking to uncover the system wide interactions of biological pathways and bridging across biological scales, systems biology is an invaluable tool for discovery and translational medicine research, and paves the way for successful clinical development. Characterizing and quantifying complex interactions across biological systems allows us to discover potential targets for novel therapeutics and to design effective treatments in an efficient and data-driven way, improving the probability of success of new molecular candidates. By integrating network-based models based on omics data and utilizing enhanced disease models to predict human drug effects, the systems-based approach aims to accelerate advancement of innovative and impactful therapies towards improving patient care and increasing the efficiency of drug development. In this chapter, we describe how systems biology, a multidisciplinary approach to drug development, integrates biological and computational science capabilities to identify, design, and translate innovative molecular candidates into the clinic against complex and rare diseases towards the realization of novel medicines for patients with unmet medical needs.