ABSTRACT
The Human Genome Project, which sequenced the three billion DNA letters, has resulted in an unprecedented amount of information for scientists to analyze. The ultimate goal is to answer one of biology’s next big challenges: how to go from the DNA sequence of a gene, to the structure of the protein for which it encodes to the activity of the protein and its function within the cell, to the tissue and then ultimately to the organism? The answer to this question ultimately involves two central problems. The first is related to the identification of the functional role of a specific gene in the organism; the second is related to the analysis of its interactions within a genetic pathway. Accomplishing this is not a trivial task, especially with the challenges imposed by high dimensionality, uncertainty and complexity of biological systems. As has been frequently suggested, research relying strictly on traditional wet lab or clinical approaches is of prime importance, but is not sufficient by itself to accomplish the goal of using genetic information to understand the functioning
of organisms as integrated systems. Therefore, this type of experimental biology should be complemented by the use of mathematical and computational models of the cell and its molecular pathways. These models do not have to be entirely accurate to provide useful insight. Given the enormous increase in genetic and molecular data and with the help of guided experiment, the models will continue to improve to become an essential tool for evaluating hypotheses and suggesting new directions in experimental procedures.
