‘Systems biology’ in human exercise physiology: is it something different from integrative physiology?

Abstract

On first impression the 'whole-istic approach to understanding biology' that has been used to describe Systems Biology bears a striking resemblance to what many of us know as Integrative Physiology. However, closer scrutiny reveals that at the present time Systems Biology is rooted in processes operating at a cellular level ('the study of an organism, viewed as an integrated and interacting network of genes, proteins and biochemical reactions which give rise to life ultimately responsible for an organism's form and functions'; http://www.systemsbiology.org), and appears to have evolved as a direct result of advances in high throughput molecular biology platforms (and associated bioinformatics) over the past decade. The Systems Biology approach is in many ways laudable, but it will be immediately apparent to most exercise or integrative physiologists that the challenge of understanding the whole-animal response to exercise as a network of integrated and interacting genes, proteins and biochemical reactions is unlikely to be realized in the near future. This short review will attempt to clarify conceptual inconsistencies between the fields of Systems Biology and Integrative Physiology in the context of exercise science, and will attempt to identify the challenges to whole-body physiologists wishing to harness the tools of Systems Biology.