Quantifying your body: a how-to guide from a systems biology perspective - PubMed (original) (raw)

Quantifying your body: a how-to guide from a systems biology perspective

Larry Smarr. Biotechnol J. 2012 Aug.

Abstract

During the coming decade we will see an accelerated digital transformation of healthcare. Leading this change within the institutional medical community are both the move to digital medical records and the use of digital biomedical measurement devices. In addition to this institutional evolution, there is a non-institutional, bottom-up, unorganized, highly idiosyncratic movement by early adopters to "quantify" their own bodies. In this article, I share my decade-long personal experience of tracking many blood and stool biomarkers, which provide insight into the health or disease of major subsystems of my body. These results are interpreted in the context of the genetics of my human DNA and that of the microbes in my gut. Even though I am a computer scientist and not a medical professional, by using commercially available tests and a systems biology integrative approach, I have become an early example of Leroy Hood's vision of the emergence of predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory (P4) medicine. It is an individual's story illustrating how each of us can contribute to realizing this paradigm shift.

Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

• Editorial: Systems biology and personalized medicine - the future is now.
  Auffray C, Hood L. Auffray C, et al. Biotechnol J. 2012 Aug;7(8):938-9. doi: 10.1002/biot.201200242. Biotechnol J. 2012. PMID: 22887882
• Addressing the complexity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: from phenotypes and biomarkers to scale-free networks, systems biology, and P4 medicine.
  Agusti A, Sobradillo P, Celli B. Agusti A, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011 May 1;183(9):1129-37. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201009-1414PP. Epub 2010 Dec 17. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011. PMID: 21169466 Review.
• A personal view on systems medicine and the emergence of proactive P4 medicine: predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory.
  Hood L, Flores M. Hood L, et al. N Biotechnol. 2012 Sep 15;29(6):613-24. doi: 10.1016/j.nbt.2012.03.004. Epub 2012 Mar 18. N Biotechnol. 2012. PMID: 22450380
• Systems medicine and metabolic modelling.
  Mardinoglu A, Nielsen J. Mardinoglu A, et al. J Intern Med. 2012 Feb;271(2):142-54. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02493.x. J Intern Med. 2012. PMID: 22142312 Review.
• Personalized health care: from theory to practice.
  Snyderman R. Snyderman R. Biotechnol J. 2012 Aug;7(8):973-9. doi: 10.1002/biot.201100297. Epub 2011 Dec 16. Biotechnol J. 2012. PMID: 22180345 Review.

Cited by

• 2012 highlights in translational 'omics.
  Auffray C, Caulfield T, Khoury MJ, Lupski JR, Schwab M, Veenstra T. Auffray C, et al. Genome Med. 2013 Jan 31;5(1):10. doi: 10.1186/gm414. eCollection 2013. Genome Med. 2013. PMID: 23369291 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
• Activity Theory as a Theoretical Framework for Health Self-Quantification: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies.
  Almalki M, Gray K, Martin-Sanchez F. Almalki M, et al. J Med Internet Res. 2016 May 27;18(5):e131. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5000. J Med Internet Res. 2016. PMID: 27234343 Free PMC article. Review.
• The transition from genomics to phenomics in personalized population health.
  Yurkovich JT, Evans SJ, Rappaport N, Boore JL, Lovejoy JC, Price ND, Hood LE. Yurkovich JT, et al. Nat Rev Genet. 2024 Apr;25(4):286-302. doi: 10.1038/s41576-023-00674-x. Epub 2023 Dec 13. Nat Rev Genet. 2024. PMID: 38093095 Review.
• Personalized respiratory medicine: exploring the horizon, addressing the issues. Summary of a BRN-AJRCCM workshop held in Barcelona on June 12, 2014.
  Agustí A, Antó JM, Auffray C, Barbé F, Barreiro E, Dorca J, Escarrabill J, Faner R, Furlong LI, Garcia-Aymerich J, Gea J, Lindmark B, Monsó E, Plaza V, Puhan MA, Roca J, Ruiz-Manzano J, Sampietro-Colom L, Sanz F, Serrano L, Sharpe J, Sibila O, Silverman EK, Sterk PJ, Sznajder JI. Agustí A, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2015 Feb 15;191(4):391-401. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201410-1935PP. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2015. PMID: 25531178 Free PMC article.
• Other side of the coin for personalised medicine and healthcare: content analysis of 'personalised' practices in the literature.
  Cesuroglu T, Syurina E, Feron F, Krumeich A. Cesuroglu T, et al. BMJ Open. 2016 Jul 13;6(7):e010243. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010243. BMJ Open. 2016. PMID: 27412099 Free PMC article.

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Wiley