Rethinking medical education through systems biology to address complexity
While reductionism has advanced biology and medicine, it fosters a fragmented understanding of health, ill-suited to modern challenges like chronic and systemic diseases. Systems biology offers a new perspective, framing biological entities within interconnected networks. Using French medical education as an example, we argue that systems thinking should be foundational, not optional. Integrating systems biology early in medical education can better prepare future physicians for biomedical complexity and precision medicine.
Authors
- Pierre‐Antoine Gourraud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1131-9554)
- Guillaume Lamirault (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6490-1279)
- Patricia Lemarchand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5330-2008)
- Laurent David (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3594-0353)
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nantes (FR)
- Centre d'Investigation Clinique de Nantes (FR)
- Institut du Thorax (FR)
- Nantes Université (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Systems Biology and Applications
- Published
- 2026-01-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41540-025-00636-5
- Primary Topic
- Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00