Network and systems biology: essential steps in virtualising drug discovery and development

The biological processes that keep us healthy or cause disease, as well as the mechanisms of action of possible drugs are inherently complex. In the face of this complexity, attempts at discovering new drugs to treat diseases have alternated between trial-and-error (typically on experimental systems) and grand simplification, usually based on much too little information. We now have the chance to combine these strategies through establishment of ‘virtual patient’ models, centred on a detailed molecular characterisation of thousands or even, in the future, millions of patients. In doing so, we lay the foundations for truly personalised therapy, as well as a far-reaching virtualisation of drug discovery and development in oncology and other areas of medicine.