Systems Biology-Based Platforms to Accelerate Research of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Oh, Soo-Jin; Choi, Young-Ki; Shin, Ok Sarah

In recent years, systems biology has rapidly emerged as a new discipline. 9 As researchers move from a traditional reductionist approach to a systemic approach, there are rapidly increasing amounts of novel omics data and other relevant data available. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) and high-throughput technologies have enabled researchers to comprehensively assess whole genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, and metabolomes of cells and tissues. These systemic approaches are being applied to the field of immunology and vaccine development, since the integration of genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics can give a global picture of nearly 30000 genes, proteins, and cells participating in the immune response to pathogens or vaccination. [10] [11] [12] [13] In this review, we highlight the major EIDs that have had a significant global impact and for which vaccines do not currently exist, and we summarize recent EIDs in South Korea. Moreover, we discuss various systems biology approaches and examine how these strategies offer significant potential for discovering new biomarkers of pathogenicity or predictors of protective immunity. Overall, we suggest that a systems biology approach would likely enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of newly emerging pathogens and accelerate the development of next generation vaccines against EIDs.