Title: Mutual understanding between Traditional Chinese Medicine and systems biology: gaps, challenges and opportunities

Authors: Dong Xu

Addresses: Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center, Department of Computer Science, University of Missouri, Columbia MO 65211, USA

Abstract: While Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and systems biology have philosophical differences, both address human health using an integrative approach and both aim towards personalised medicine. The post-genomic era provides a unique opportunity for the two fields to understand and benefit from each other. In this review, the two approaches are compared, and various examples and hypotheses are provided to show how some practices in TCM might be interpreted by systems biology.

Keywords: TCM; traditional Chinese medicine; systems biology; CWM; conventional Western medicine; personalised medicine; holism; herbs; circadian rhythm; water structure; acupuncture points; ZHENG; Qi; Qigong; body-mind relationship; gene expression; proteomics; metabolomics; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIPM.2009.030826

International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine, 2009 Vol.2 No.3, pp.248 - 260

Published online: 07 Jan 2010 *