Systems biology represents an integrative research strategy that studies the interactions between DNA, mRNA, protein, and metabolite level in an organism, thereby including the interactions with the physical environment and other organisms. The

High-throughput molecular and computer technologies have become instrumental for systems biological explorations of pathogens, including parasites. For instance, investigations of the transcriptomes of different developmental stages of parasitic

RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) measures the quantitative change in gene expression over the whole transcriptome, but it lacks spatial context. In contrast, in situ hybridization provides the location of gene expression, but only for a small number of

Until recently, transcriptome analyses of single cells have been confined to eukaryotes. The information obtained from single-cell transcripts can provide detailed insight into spatiotemporal gene expression, and it could be even more valuable if

Recent technical advances have enabled RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) in single cells. Exploratory studies have already led to insights into the dynamics of differentiation, cellular responses to stimulation and the stochastic nature of transcription. We

The exponential growth of experimental and clinical data generated from systematic studies, the complexity in health and diseases, and the request for the establishment of systems models are bringing bioinformatics to the center stage of

“Omics” technologies have facilitated significant advances in the understanding of toxicity mechanisms in complex biological systems. In this chapter we discuss the most important “omics” technologies and how they are currently applied in the field

Individual cells of the same phenotype are commonly viewed as identical functional units of a tissue or organ. However, the deep sequencing of DNA and RNA from single cells suggests a more complex ecology of heterogeneous cell states that together

The developing brain is vulnerable towards compounds interfering with processes explicitly involved in brain development. These processes include neural stem/progenitor cell (NS/PC) proliferation, migration, differentiation, apoptosis as well as

The Hox family of transcription factors defines cell identity along the A/P axis of animal body plan by modulating expression of distinct sets of target genes in a tissue specific manner. Identifying such tissue specific target genes is indispensable