Network as a language for precision medicine

Abstract

The article takes as a starting point the observation of a deep and long-standing gap between the views of biologists/physicians and that of physicists/data scientists when dealing with life sciences. This gap has been exacerbated by the advent of large-scale -omics technologies. Here, we focus on the impact of this gap in the field of precision medicine that impedes dialogue between omics data analysts and precision medicine physicians. To try to overcome this cultural divide, here we suggest a new possibility through the use of network science as a shared language composed of a vocabulary of words that have different meanings in each discipline but refer to the same biological entity. By doing
so, one can move from biological concepts to network patterns and algorithms and backwards, thus generating a dialogue between “life scientists” and “number scientists”. The article presents several simple network concepts with a straightforward biological interpretation as a starting point for such interdisciplinary dialogue.