Fundamentals of Systems Biology

Preface

Overview

Let’s begin our journey into systems biology by comparing complex diseases to a firing squad. While working as a postdoc at the California Institute of Technology, I had the opportunity to know a talented biologist and a well-read Russian who convinced me to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace. One thrilling highlight of that masterpiece finds the protagonist, Pierre, in front of a firing squad in Moscow. Tolstoy describes the wild thoughts ringing in Pierre’s mind as he faces the guns, wondering how he had come to this point. “Who was it that had really sentenced him to death?” As Pierre looks into the nervous eyes of the young soldiers, he realizes that they are not to blame, for “not one of them had wished to or, evidently, could ...