TY - JOUR
T1 - Human disease classification in the postgenomic era
T2 - A complex systems approach to human pathobiology
AU - Loscalzo, Joseph
AU - Kohane, Isaac
AU - Barabasi, Albert Laszlo
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Contemporary classification of human disease derives from observational correlation between pathological analysis and clinical syndromes. Characterizing disease in this way established a nosology that has served clinicians well to the current time, and depends on observational skills and simple laboratory tools to define the syndromic phenotype. Yet, this time-honored diagnostic strategy has significant shortcomings that reflect both a lack of sensitivity in identifying preclinical disease, and a lack of specificity in defining disease unequivocally. In this paper, we focus on the latter limitation, viewing it as a reflection both of the different clinical presentations of many diseases (variable phenotypic expression), and of the excessive reliance on Cartesian reductionism in establishing diagnoses. The purpose of this perspective is to provide a logical basis for a new approach to classifying human disease that uses conventional reductionism and incorporates the non-reductionist approach of systems biomedicine.
AB - Contemporary classification of human disease derives from observational correlation between pathological analysis and clinical syndromes. Characterizing disease in this way established a nosology that has served clinicians well to the current time, and depends on observational skills and simple laboratory tools to define the syndromic phenotype. Yet, this time-honored diagnostic strategy has significant shortcomings that reflect both a lack of sensitivity in identifying preclinical disease, and a lack of specificity in defining disease unequivocally. In this paper, we focus on the latter limitation, viewing it as a reflection both of the different clinical presentations of many diseases (variable phenotypic expression), and of the excessive reliance on Cartesian reductionism in establishing diagnoses. The purpose of this perspective is to provide a logical basis for a new approach to classifying human disease that uses conventional reductionism and incorporates the non-reductionist approach of systems biomedicine.
KW - Genotype
KW - Network
KW - Pathology
KW - Phenotype
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34447521460&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/msb4100163
DO - 10.1038/msb4100163
M3 - Review Article
C2 - 17625512
AN - SCOPUS:34447521460
SN - 1744-4292
VL - 3
JO - Molecular Systems Biology
JF - Molecular Systems Biology
M1 - 124
ER -