Systems biology: essential principles and OMICS approaches

The systems biology is a new branch of modern biology aimed at studying various systems existing in nature on the level of their biological components such as biomolecules (ex. DNA, RNA, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, etc.), cells and organelles, tissues and organs, organisms, or species. It differs from the synthetic biology aimed at the creation and study of the biological systems that do not exist in nature for: a) development and combining different functional modules in one system, b) better understanding of processes taking place in the living organisms, c) development of new methods for influencing functions of the living organisms. These two branches of modern biology have similar methodological approaches based on the achievements of molecular bio­logy and bioinformatics. The behavior of different systems in the living organisms is very compleх, however, it might be defined using specific approaches of the systems bio­logy based on studying qualitative and quantitative characteristics of all components of a specific biological system through the OMICS approaches. In this review, specific OMICS for various biological systems are briefly described. The application of the systems bio­logy and the OMICS approaches demonstrated their great potentials for medicine, pharmaceutics, biotechnology, namely for the development of “smart” biomaterials.