Editorial: Biological Control Systems and Disease Modeling.

Abstract

The mammalian organism maintains stable, efficient, and “near-optimal” performance and homeostasis in the face of external and internal perturbations via distinct biological systems ranging from the large-scale physiological (nervous, endocrine, immune, circulatory, respiratory, etc.), to the cellular (growth and proliferation regulation, DNA damage repair, etc.), and the sub-cellular (gene expression, protein synthesis, metabolite regulation, etc). “Biological Control Systems,” the application of control theory and practice to biological systems, arises from a control engineering perspective of the function, organization, and coordination of these multi-scale biological systems and the control mechanisms that enable them to carry out their functions effectively. A direct consequence of this engineering perspective is that many diseases are seen as arising when one (or more) of these biological control systems malfunctions or fails completely. For example, hypertension results from a malfunctioning blood pressure control system, hypocalcemia from a malfunctioning calcium homeostasis system, and Type 1 diabetes from a failure of the blood glucose control system. A natural corollary therefore is that appropriate treatment regimens consist of ways of restoring (for example via pharmaceutical drugs) the functions lost by the malfunctioning components, or, where full functional restoration is not possible, the introduction of external means of supplementing or replacing the malfunctioning biological component (for example, the “artificial pancreas” for treating Type-I diabetes). Such a perspective places emphasis on a rigorous quantitative approach to three tasks: (i) the analysis of biological systems for insight; (ii) the identification of the root cause of pathologies and potential treatment targets; and (iii) the rational design (and implementation) of effective interventions.