"Interactome Networks and Human Disease"

Marc Vidal, PhD
Professor & Director
Center for Cancer Systems Biology
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Medical School

For over half a century it has been conjectured that macromolecules form complex networks of functionally interacting components, and that the molecular mechanisms underlying most biological processes correspond to particular steady states adopted by such cellular networks. However, until a decade ago, systems-level theoretical conjectures remained largely unappreciated, mainly because of lack of supporting experimental data.

To generate the information necessary to eventually address how complex cellular networks relate to biology, we initiated, at the scale of the whole proteome, an integrated approach for modeling protein-protein interaction or “interactome” networks. Our main questions are: How are interactome networks organized at the scale of the whole cell? How can we uncover local and global features underlying this organization, and how are interactome networks modified in human disease, such as cancer?