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Science 2 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5411, pp. 92 - 96
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5411.92
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Complexity in Biological Signaling Systems

Gezhi Weng, 1 Upinder S. Bhalla, 2 Ravi Iyengar 1*

Biological signaling pathways interact with one another to form complex networks. Complexity arises from the large number of components, many with isoforms that have partially overlapping functions; from the connections among components; and from the spatial relationship between components. The origins of the complex behavior of signaling networks and analytical approaches to deal with the emergent complexity are discussed here.

1 Department of Pharmacology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.
2 National Center for Biological Sciences, UAS-GKVK Campus, Bangalore 560065, India.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: iyengar{at}msvax.mssm.edu

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