Emerging Talents in Systems Biology Research 2022/2023

This article collection highlights the central role of systems biology approaches in advancing our understanding of complex physiological and pathological processes. The first article explores the vagus nerve's regulation of cross-tissue inflammatory networks, identifying novel spatiotemporal interactions among chemokines and cytokines that underlie acute inflammation. The second article focuses on the metabolic interplay between the gut microbiome and the heart, providing a curated pathway map of the TMA/TMAO pathway as a resource for modeling cardiovascular metabolism and uncovering new insights into the gut-heart axis. The third article investigates how trauma-induced bone fractures may alter inflammatory profiles and increase the short-term risk of ARDS, emphasizing the need for deeper characterization of cytokine responses in trauma patients. The final article examines various computational methods for scoring drug-disease connectivity, offering a comparative framework to optimize in silico drug repurposing based on gene expression data. Collectively, these studies underscore the growing impact of network analysis and multi-omic modeling in decoding disease mechanisms and guiding therapeutic innovation.
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Here we present the Systems Biology ‘Emerging Talents in’ collection, a series dedicated to highlighting the emerging talent of student researchers within Systems Biology.

Across the world, students are undertaking key research as part of their education in Systems Biology; however, most of this work is not communicated to a wider audience. We recognise that this is because many student researchers find the thought of peer-review daunting. Here, peer-review is considered a collaborative process and our interactive peer-review is tailored to provide hands-on guidance and constructive feedback to researchers. Our Topic Editors are committed to the development of emerging talents and want to see student researchers strive for success at publications.

The research presented in this collection highlights the quality and diversity of student researchers across the field of Systems Biology. We welcome contributions in the form of original research, review, mini review, case report, hypothesis and theory, perspective, both experimental and computational studies that cover, but are not limited to, following areas and subthemes:
• The systems-level understanding of biological systems i.e. immune, cardiovascular, etc.
• Pathogen responses and/or immune-mediated diseases on a systems-level
Utilizing systems-level approaches to enhance, design and/or develop new therapeutics / vaccines.
• Design and development of or novel use of mathematical and/or computational models at a Systems-level, especially those that integrate data across biological scales. I.e. Dynamic models, Spatio-temporal modelling, Stochastic modelling, Data mining, Agent-based modelling, Hybrid models, Network models, and Mechanistic models.
• Approaches that combine modeling with machine learning/AI
• Experimental design for systems research
• Genome-wide association studies aimed at disentangling the genetic complexity of phenotypic traits and diseases
• Genetic interactions studies that better interpret phenotypic variation
• Statistical and computational methodologies of unlocking high-dimensional data i.e. in Genetics/Genomics
• Studies linking pre-clinical cell and animal models to the human disease setting via computational modelling
• Simulation of individual human responses (“digital twins”) or clinical populations

This Research Topic will help to identify emerging leaders and allow the community to follow the aspiring careers of emerging, talented researchers. #EmergingTalentsIn

Please note: To be considered for this collection, the first and/or collaborating first, or second author will be a registered undergraduate or graduate student at time of submission

Keywords: Immunology, Inflammation, Pathogen responses, Vaccine development, Therapeutics, Immune disorders, Dynamic Models, Stochastic Modeling, Data Mining, Experimental Design, Machine Learning, AI, Agent-based modelling, Hybrid modeling, throughput, Mechanistic modeling, Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics, Metabolites, Variants, Phenotypes, Neuroscience, Multi-Omic, Translational, Systems Biology, Emerging Talents

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.