One of the major challenges in complex systems biology is that of providing a general theoretical framework to describe the phenomena involved in cell differentiation, i.e., the process whereby stem cells, which can develop into different types, become progressively more specialized. The aim of this study is to briefly review a dynamical model of cell differentiation which is able to cover a br...

Demarcations of scientific fields have always followed either a conceptual breakthrough or have been a result of profoundly enabling technologies. Quantum theory and quantum mechanics revolutionized physics and engineering, but highenergy physics is a discipline fundamentally enabled by the linear accelerator. Similarly, the discovery of the structure of DNA gave birth to molecular biology; str...

tion was associated with an observable survival benefit and delay in progression to AIDS among HIV-1–infected IDUs. 3 While HTLV-I has been definitively proven to cause adult T-cell leukemia/lym-phoma and a progressive neurodegenerative illness known as tropical spastic parapare-sis/HTLV-I–associated myelopathy (TSP/ HAM), a causal role for HTLV-II with either leukemia or TSP/HAM is much less w...

Systems biology and molecular biology can answer the same question in quite different ways, and frequently the answers given by one sub-discipline seem no answer at all to the other. For many molecular biologists, a systemslevel explanation leaves them feeling that, until the underlying molecular mechanisms are known, the approach is hopelessly superficial. For systems biologists, on the other ...