Reverse engineering intracellular biochemical networks

Although much is known about the molecular components of cellular signaling pathways, very little is known about how these multicomponent biochemical machineries process complex extracellular signals to generate a consolidated cellular response. A newly developed theoretical approach for reverse engineering network structure analyzing how perturbations propagate in a network-can be combined with chemical perturbations and quantitative detection approaches to reveal the causal connections within protein networks in cells. This information indicates the dynamic capabilities of a network and thereby its potential function.