Systems biology: personalized medicine for the future?

Systems biology is actively transforming the field of modern health care from symptom-based disease diagnosis and treatment to precision medicine in which patients are treated based on their individual characteristics. Development of high-throughput technologies such as high-throughout sequencing and mass spectrometry has enabled scientists and clinicians to examine genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, metabolomes, and other omics information in unprecedented detail. The combined ‘omics’ information leads to a global profiling of health and disease, and provides new approaches for personalized health monitoring and preventative medicine. In this article, we review the efforts of systems biology in personalized medicine in the past 2 years, and discuss in detail achievements and concerns, as well as highlights and hurdles for future personalized health care.

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► Recent achievements in genomic research.
► Pioneering efforts in personalized health monitoring with omics profiling.
► The benefits and concerns for personalized medicine.