Commentary: Systems biology and its relevance to alcohol research.

Systems biology, a new scientific discipline, aims to study the behavior of a biological organization or process in order to understand the function of a dynamic system. This commentary will put into perspective topics discussed in this issue of Alcohol Research & Health, provide insight into why alcohol-induced disorders exemplify the kinds of conditions for which a systems biological approach would be fruitful, and discuss the opportunities and challenges facing alcohol researchers.

High-throughput proteomics for alcohol research.

This report summarizes the proceedings of a satellite symposium of the 2003 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting held on June 21, 2003, in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The goal of this symposium, sponsored by the NIAAA, was to identify new proteomic directions in alcohol research that will (1) enable studies that focus on characterizing protein function, biochemical pathways, and networks to understand alcohol-related illnesses; (2) identify protein-protein interactions, posttranslational modifications, and subcellular localizations; (3) identify molecular targets for medication development; (4) develop biomarkers for susceptibility, dependence, consumption, and relapse, as well as alcohol-induced pathologies; and (5) develop high-throughput drug screens to test the efficacy of therapeutics that control alcohol-induced diseases. The purpose of the symposium was also to promote the application of high-throughput proteomic approaches, including isolation of membrane-bound proteins, in situ proteomics, large-scale two-dimensional separations, protein microarray platforms, mass spectrometry, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and isotope-coded affinity tags. In addition, the development of protein network maps by using new bioinformatics approaches for database mining was also discussed.