Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Symposium

Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) is an emerging approach to integrate information across multiple organizational scales; it represents “an approach to translational medicine that combines computational and experimental methods to elucidate, validate, and apply new pharmacological concepts to the development and use of small molecule- and biologic drugs” [1]. Accordingly, systems pharmacology models focus on the dynamic interplay among the constituents of larger-scale systems that together manifest as emergent properties. A systems approach to pharmacological therapy will “create the knowledge needed to change complex cellular networks in a specified way with mono or combination therapy, alter the pathophysiology of disease so as to maximize therapeutic benefit and minimize toxicity, and implement a ‘precision medicine’ approach to improving the health of individual patients” [1].