Journal des bioprocédés et des biotechniques

Perspectives on Computational Structural Bio-Systems

Abstract

Stefano Piccoli and Alejandro Giorgetti

Non-molecular systems biology is aimed at the prediction of the functional features of bio-systems on the basis of known cell proteomes and interactomes. Understanding the interactions between all the involved molecules is therefore the key for gaining a deep understanding of such processes. Albeit many thousands of interactions are known, accurate molecular insights are available for only a small fraction of them. The difficulties found in the resolution of atomic level structures for interacting pairs, make the predictive power of molecular computational biology methods essential for the advancement of the field. Indeed, bridging the gap formed due to the lack of structural details can therefore transform systems biology into models that more accurately reflect biological reality.