The future of computational biomedicine: Complex systems thinking

- We are confronted to problems that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
- The study of the biomedical problems has become difficult and “complex”.
- What is new is the power of the whole, not the components.
- Systems thinking emerges as a foundational underpinning of modern bioinformatics.

“More is different” (Philip W. Anderson). Complex systems thinking become instrumental for the modern understanding basis of life sciences in general and, hence, medicine and public health. In this perspective paper, we discuss recent literature and invite readers to explore the utility of complex thinking to properly addressing the constrained-based analysis of high-profile open questions in biomedicine with straightforward implications on public health. Recommendations are then proposed to encourage new multidisciplinary teams to come together in a timely manner in response to novel challenges in the theoretical physiology arena. We conclude that there is the need for far greater attention to the issue of complexity to aptly cope with a new array of problems that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.