Mike,
This is more in the realm of functional genomics, or more appropriately "epinomics" (I think that's the term I've heard bandied about, might be "epigenomics"). This is why simply knowing the DNA sequence is not going to tell you much in most situations, we'll have to look at the protein products of those genes (inlcuding everything through post-translational modification and transport), the interactions between the genes and the proteins, additional interactions with the non-nucleic acid/non-protein components of the body, the environment etc.
Just as genomics won't tell us all, proteomics won't tell us all. But as with the meterological/climatological models you use, we put in what we know, assume enough to make it work, figure out where it falls apart and where the big SWAGs are, then fill in those holes. And just as modularity makes massive atomospheric models feasible to build, we'd hope that we could find the same in living systems.
The great thing about epinomics is that once we get even passable models, you can do something about human health - unlike the weather <g>
biowa |
