System approaches of Weiss and Bertalanffy and their relevance for systems biology today

摘要: System approaches in biology have a long history. We focus here on the thinking of Paul A. Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy, who contributed great deal towards making system concept operable early 20th century. To them, considering whole living systems, which includes their organisation or order, is equally important as dynamics within systems interplay between different levels from molecules over cells to organisms. They also called for taking intrinsic activity conservation states into account. compare these notions with today's biology, often bottom-up approach molecular cellular behaviour. conclude that bringing together heuristics recent formalisms novel experimental set-ups can lead fruitful results understanding.