Customer Reviews

Foundations of Systems Biology

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The sizzle of bioinformatics is fadding, so you're looking to become a player in biology's new buzz: systems biology? Well, don't start your search with this book. The title is misleading: "Foundations of Systems Biology". I was expecting a broad overview of the field with maybe a few key examples and typical approaches of experimental design (both wet-lab and computational). However, this book is nothing more than a thrown together collection of papers that would have a better home torn out of the book and placed in journals. A better (and cheaper) starting place for getting an overview of systems biology would be the SCIENCE issue on systems biology (vol 295 2002) [it even has a nice review by Kitano the editor of this book]. For people looking for current gene network modeling techniques, you might start with "Mathematical modeling of gene networks." Smolen, et.al. Neuron 2000. But save your money and time by not buying this book.

I was very disappointed with what I found in this book. There is a broad range of topics, but the material presented for each topic is extremely thin. In fact, it would appear that each topic is covered by a single chapter modeled after a very short scientific paper. There is very little review of current cutting edge methods. For example, of particular interest to this reviewer was the chapter on large-scale gene expression arrays. What this reviewer found for 1/3 of the chapter on gene arrays was a paper detailing the "DBRF" method in inferring gene array data. At the end of the chapter was a conclusion, "Thus it is shown here that the DBRF method is superior the _predictor_ method." What should have been a chapter on 'foundations', as the title implies, seems to have become a chapter for pushing the agenda of a particular author's field of research.

It may very well be that the 'DBRF' method is superior to the 'predictor' method. That we'll leave up to the reader. But the inclusion of such material would seem to undermine the goals stated in the editorial preface, "Toward System-level Understand of Biological Ssytems." A foundations book, instead of focusing on research of particular groups, should attempt to summarize, dissect, review, compare, and criticize the field.

A more appropriate title for this book would be 'A random collection of speculative essays.' There may still be gems in this book for certain readers, but those wishing to learn about general systems biology should turn elsewhere.

In my knowledge, this is the first organized effort to present a synoptic view of systems biology. The best part is that all the contributors are themselves active scientists in the field and obviously therefore information presented is very reliable. I would strongly recommend this book for beginners, though I am sure professionals will find it equally interesting.

Great for people who are interested in this new area.