
7
Reverse engineering biomolecular networks
7.1 Introduction
Fundamental breakthroughs in the field of biotechnology over the last decade,
such a s cDNA microarrays and oligonucleotide chips, [1 , 2], have made high-
throughput and quantitative experimental measurements of biological systems
much easier and cheaper to make. The availability of such an overwhelming
amount of data, however, poses a new challenge for modellers: how to reverse
engineer biological systems at the molecular level using their measured re-
sponses to external pertur bations (e.g. drugs, signalling mole cules, pathogens)
and changes in environmental conditions (e.g. change in