An Early Stage Researcher's Primer on Systems Medicine Terminology
Background: Systems Medicine is a novel approach to medicine, that is, an interdisciplinary field that considers the human body as a system, composed of multiple parts and of complex relationships at multiple levels, and further integrated into an environment. Exploring Systems Medicine implies understanding and combining concepts coming from diametral different fields, including medicine, biology, statistics, modeling and simulation, and data science. Such heterogeneity leads to semantic issues, which may slow down implementation and fruitful interaction between these highly diverse fields. Methods: In this review, we collect and explain more than100 terms related to Systems Medicine. Thes…
Mechanistic Modeling and Multiscale Applications for Precision Medicine: Theory and Practice
Drug research, therapy development, and other areas of pharmacology and medicine can benefit from simula- tions and optimization of mathematical models that contain a mathematical description of interactions between systems elements at the cellular, tissue, organ, body, and population level. This approach is the foundation of systems medicine and precision medicine. Here, simulated experiments are performed with computers (in silico) first, and they are then replicated through lab experiments (in vivo or in vitro) or clinical studies. In turn, these experiments and studies can be used to validate or improve the models. This iterative loop of dry and wet lab work is successful when biomedica…