Sysbiohealth Symposium 2011: systems medicine interfacing physics, mathematics and medicine

The SysBioHealth Symposium 2011 Systems Medicine: interfacing Physics, Mathematics and Medicine The Bologna SysBioHealth Conference this year is devoted to Systems Medicine: interfacing Physics Mathematics and Medicine. This title is indicative of the direction that contemporary Systems Biology is taking. A prominent result of Systems Biology has been the characterization of Biological Systems in terms of very high number of mutually interacting elements organized into functional and dynamic networks with different levels or strata of complexity: from molecules, to sub-cellular organelles to the cells that are the building block of higher levels of organization, capable of generating a whole series of different tissues and organs that finally constitute a unique body. Based on these results, contemporary Systems Biology is moving towards applications in the BioMedical field such as the experimental characterization of genetic circuits and pathways involved in pathologies, their mathematical and quantitative descriptions and statistical analysis of high throughput data generated within the framework of clinical and case-control studies. The contemporary Medicine is quickly moving towards an eminently interdisciplinary type of research, far from the methods of traditional research fragmented and separated into different non-communicating fields. Systems Medicine is now emerged as a mature research field with a plethora of applications, ranging from basic BioMedical knowledge to clinical applications. From a general point of view, one aspect of Systems Medicine can be based on the combination of multiple “omics” measurements such as: Transcriptomics, Metabolomics, Imaging, Glycomics, Epigenetics etc., that are giving quantitative informations on the functional activity and state of the studied organs and processes. In addition, new type of experimental devices are becoming available, as those based on organic and bio-compatible materials that can produce new type of high throughput data also from living cells and organisms. The merging of all these measurements within an unifying framework can pave the way for future models capable to deal with the challenges posed by the development of a personalized Medicine. The comprehension of the cross talk between organs and functions can be based on the complex representation of “omics” measurements that can help to define a sort of “rest” or “unperturbed” state: the healthy state. This characterization can lead to a new vision of the pathological state as a deviation from the healthy state, moreover the “omics” measurements will help to quantify the amplitude of these deviations and inform on the pathologies progression . The conference is organized in six sections: The first section is devoted to EU projects, NUAGE and FIBEbiotics that are both focused on the impact of nutrition to human health and use a Systems Biology approach to quantify the role of food (in term of molecules) on selected pathways, cellular functions, organs and systems, including the Immune System. The second section is centered on Immune System and some particular aspects as the complexity of Toll like receptors that are playing a central role on development and progression of bacterial and viral diseases, the SELF representation, the p53 network and the Immunoproteasome. The arguments of the third section are the omics measurements used in the study of Gut Microbiome, Liver and Metabolomics. These kind of studies are closely related to the impact of food on human health. The fourth section is tackling an emerging field as Epigenetic and DNA shape, that are giving unexpected informations on longevity and related age-associated pathologies such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The fifth and sixth sections are devoted to data-analysis and modeling, starting from pathway modeling, to stochastic models, cardiovascular mathematics and Systems Biology of cell cycle. This book of proceedings is based on...