SCAS News - 18 October, 2017

Emerging Topics in Biological Networks and Systems Biology in Focus at SCAS

On 9-11 October, the symposium Emerging Topics in Biological Networks and Systems Biology
took place in the Thunberg Hall. This was the second symposium within the framework of the
Collegium’s newly launched Natural and Medical Sciences Programme, and the first one focusing
on Theoretical Biology, which is one of four thematic foci of the programme.

In the presence of a large audience filling up the Thunberg Hall, the 22 invited speakers presented
on a variety of subjects, divided into four more specific themes, namely multi-omic and multi-
resolution modelling of networks; network robustness and targeted intervention; the usage of net-
work biology in industry and medicine; and emerging mathematical approaches to networks.

High-throughput biology (genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, etc.) is producing
massive amounts of data that in different ways can help us understand biology. A major challenge
is thus to turn this Big Data into knowledge that generates novel biological insights. Diverse types of
data can be analysed together to build models of the complex interplay between genes, proteins, and
other molecular entities. The current knowledge of signalling and regulatory pathways is still at a very
rudimentary level, and generally there is incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms that
when perturbed cause common diseases. By bringing together the world’s top scientists in the field,
one objective of the symposium was to give all participants insights into the most novel techniques and
results. Furthermore, the aim of was to stimulate beneficial collaborations between network and systems
biology groups in the international scientific community and various research groups in Sweden.

The symposium was organized by Erik Sonnhammer (SciLifeLab/Stockholm University) and Sven
Nelander (Uppsala University) in close collaboration with the Collegium.

On 5-6 April 2017, a symposium within the Human Brains and Societies theme of the Natural and
Medical Sciences programme was held at SCAS, From Neuroscience to the Classroom.

Read more about the symposium >>
Read more about the Natural and Medical Sciences Programme >>