ABSTRACT
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Empowered by newly emerging biotechnologies and hence the fast generation of biological and
medical information, advanced genomic research promises the whole field unprecedented oppor-
tunities and hopes for genome scale study of challenging problems in life science. For example,
advances in genomic technology made it possible to study the complete genomic landscapes of
healthy individuals or of any complex diseases [21, 20, 136], the genome-wide responses to certain
genetic and chemical perturbations [72, 68, 92] or drug treatment [9], and the large-scale molecular
changes that are associated to various disease phenotypes [54]. Many of such research efforts have
proven to be highly promising to generate new insights into the biology of human disease and to
predict the individual response to treatment, which therefore could enhances our understanding of
the underlying mechanisms, promote the knowledge exchange between doctors and patients, and
facilitate clinical decision making.
