Medicinal chemistry Del Bufalo et al., Med chem 2014, 4:5 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-0444.1000181 Review Article Open Access Med chem ISSN: 2161-0444 Med chem, an open access journal Volume 4(5): 451-468 (2014) - 473 Systems Biology and Systems Medicine: The Technological Tools of the System Approaches to Complexity Alessandra Del Bufalo 1 , Patrizia Russo 1 *, Mirta Milic 1,2 , Christian Pristipino 3 , Massimo Fini 4 and Alfredo Cesario 5 1 Laboratory of Systems Approaches and Non Communicable Diseases, IRCCS "San Raffaele Pisana", Rome, Italy 2 Mutagenesis Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia 3 Personalized and Systems Medicine Unit, San Filippo Neri Hospital, Rome, Italy 4 Scientiic Director, IRCCS “San Raffaele Pisana”, Rome, Italy 5 Deputy Scientiic Director and Coordinator, Area of Systems Medicine, IRCCS “San Raffaele Pisana”, Rome, Italy Abstract Progresses made in “omics” research have fueled the collection and storage of large quantities of data. Now these data can be used for knowledge gaining. Systems biology aims at studying biological organisms as interconnected systems. Systems Medicine, by applying systems biology approaches, tries to understand illness in the context of altered regulatory circuitry. Studies in a Systems Medicine framework will enable a better understanding of diseases, and the delivery of a personalized healthcare, tailored on the speciic phenotype of each single patient. In this relatively new discipline, the review describes those tools useful in this approach. The paradigm: “disease → therapy → recovery” is not still suitable and superseded by the new one: “person → definition of the problems → quality of life”. MOLECULAR MEASURES CELLULAR MEASURES GENETIC VARIABILITY DATABASES & EXPRESSION BIOINFORMATICS MODELING LABORATORY, CLINICAL RESOURSES, DATA MANAGEMENT AND TRAINING GENE EXPRESSION RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES TRAINING *Corresponding author: Patrizia Russo, PhD, Chief, Laboratory of Systems Approaches and Non Communicable Diseases, IRCCS "San Raffaele Pisana" Via di Valcannuta, 247, I-00166 Roma, Italia, Tel: 393483339704; E-mail: patrizia_russo@hotmail.it, patrizia.russo@sanraffaele.it Received February 21, 2014; Accepted May 19, 2014; Published May 21, 2014 Citation: Del Bufalo A, Russo P, Milic M, Pristipino C, Fini M, et al. (2014) Systems Biology and Systems Medicine: The Technological Tools of the System Approaches to Complexity. Med chem 4: 473-480. doi:10.4172/2161-0444.1000181 Copyright: © 2014 Del Bufalo A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Keywords: Participatory medicine; Personalized medicine; Predictive medicine; Preventive medicine; Systems medicine Introduction and General Deinitions Since the 19 th century, the concept of health was changing, by moving from the concept of “absence of illness” to a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being” [1]. he concept of “health” in medicine is now represented by a holistic person-oriented and self-quantiication / wellness targeted approach instead of a disease- oriented vision. hus, the paradigm: “disease → therapy → recovery” is not still suitable and is superseded by the new one: “person → deinition of the problem → quality of life”. his approach is so widely accepted that the Policy environment has adopted its potentialities (On. Beatrice Lorenzin, Italian Minister of Health, [2]). his new approach is particularly helpful in the case of the chronic conditions. Chronic conditions represent at present a global problem and its resolution will become more and more urgent in the near future. Indeed, the World Economic Forum has estimated that around 47 trillion of dollars will be spent on chronic illnesses in 2030 [3]. A "Systems" approach to Biology and then to Medicine, is the only one able to allow the understanding of the so called “Complex Phenotype” [4-6]. he Complex Phenotype is not a merely additive sum of typical phenotypes that are linked to every single possible competitor in the same individual pathology, but it is the result of the integration and interaction of all components that characterize the "Person". It is important to consider the obvious bias introduced by the traditional categorical ontologies (diagnoses) that are, currently, based on “obsolete” criteria, some of which more than