Putnam, M. Taylor, L. Tsimring, J. Wang, L. Weinberger. The San Diego Center for Systems Biology combines top down and bottom up systems biology approaches to understand the functioning of the regulatory networks that control cellular responses to stress agents such as DNA and metabolic damaging agents, and pathogens. Cellular stress responses are tailored to limit the damage and initiate repair,
but when misregulated, they can cause pathology, including chronic inflammatory disease and cancer. Network-emergent properties such as dose response and dynamic control, and systems robustness, are major determinants of an appropriate and healthy cellular stress response. Understanding network-emergent properties requires the language of math to articulate hypotheses and communicate results; systems biology benefits from the technical approaches developed in dynamical systems engineering. The construction of mathematical models requires complete parts lists and databases of interactions that make up network maps. Parameterizing models and testing of hypotheses requires dynamic data from single cells that can be obtained with the help of in vivo reporters and microfluidic devices. The San Diego Consortium for Systems Biology (SDCSB) was founded in 2005 to promote collaborative research and interdisciplinary research training in Systems Biology on the Torrey Pines mesa and beyond. In 2010, SDCSB became an NIGMS Center for Systems Biology, to promote and safeguard the transitioning biomedical research from a phenomenon/data-driven science to a quantitative, math-based science. Now known as the San Diego Center for Systems Biology, SDCSB comprises activities in (i) scientific research, (ii) scientific outreach, and (iii) educational outreach.
