Network Medicine: Using Visualization to Decode Complex Diseases
Han Xiao
"We should stop training cardiologists and neurologists. The doctor of the future needs to become a 'networkologist', able to understand where diseases are lying in the network and how they relate to each other."
Albert Làszló Barabàsi is a physicist, but maybe best known for his work in the field of network theory. In his TEDMED talk titled "Network Medicine: A Network Based Approach to Decode Complex Diseases" [tedmed.com], Albert-Làszló applies advanced network theory to the field of biology.
Using a metaphor of Manhattan maps, he explains how an all-encompassing map of the relationships between genes, proteins and metabolites can form the key to truly understand the mechanisms behind many diseases. He further makes the point that diseases should not be divided up in organ-based separate branches of medicin, but rather as a tightly interconnected network.
More information is available here [neu.edu].
You can watch the movies below.
Thnkx Mauro!
Han Xiao, Ph.D. Candidate
Technische Universität München, Informatics, I20
Boltzmannstr 3, 85748 Garching
Tel: +49.89.289.18590
h.x...@tum.de
http://home.in.tum.de/~xiaoh