ReviewBMC systems biology2010
So what do we really mean when we say that systems biology is holistic?
Review in BMC systems biology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Rethinking medical education through systems biology to address complexity.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2026Review
- The human biological clock and aging-a comprehensive approach integrating reductionism, holism, and geromedicine for proactive healthspan strategies.Frontiers in aging · 2025Article
- Systems Bioinformatics: increasing precision of computational diagnostics and therapeutics through network-based approaches.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2019Review
- Systems Medicine-Complexity Within, Simplicity Without.Journal of healthcare informatics research · 2017Article
- Next-generation sequencing to guide cancer therapy.Genome medicine · 2015Review
- Stochastic simulation in systems biology.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2014Review
- Epigenetics in comparative biology: why we should pay attention.Integrative and comparative biology · 2014Review
- Rosen's (M,R) system in process algebra.BMC systems biology · 2013Article
- Hypothesizing the body's genius to trigger and self-organize its healing: 25 years using a standardized neurophysics therapy.Frontiers in physiology · 2013Article
- Basic research in HIV vaccinology is hampered by reductionist thinking.Frontiers in immunology · 2012Article
- A systems biology model of the regulatory network in Populus leaves reveals interacting regulators and conserved regulation.BMC plant biology · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAn old debate has undergone a resurgence in systems biology: that of reductionism versus holism. At least 35 articles in the systems biology literature since 2003 have touched on this issue. The histories of holism and reductionism in the philosophy of biology are reviewed, and the current debate in systems biology is placed in context.
resultsInter-theoretic reductionism in the strict sense envisaged by its creators from the 1930s to the 1960s is largely impractical in biology, and was effectively abandoned by the early 1970s in favour of a more piecemeal approach using individual reductive explanations. Classical holism was a stillborn theory of the 1920s, but the term survived in several fields as a loose umbrella designation for various kinds of anti-reductionism which often differ markedly. Several of these different anti-reductionisms are on display in the holistic rhetoric of the recent systems biology literature. This debate also coincides with a time when interesting arguments are being proposed within the philosophy of biology for a new kind of reductionism.
conclusionsEngaging more deeply with these issues should sharpen our ideas concerning the philosophy of systems biology and its future best methodology. As with previous decisive moments in the history of biology, only those theories that immediately suggest relatively easy experiments will be winners.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.