SystemsX.ch is the largest research initiative funded by the federal government in Switzerland. It promotes systems biology nationwide with the claim of belonging to the world's leading research communities.

The human body is a highly complex system. Nowadays, research not only explores the individual parts of the human body, but also tries to understand it as a whole. This is the way forward for curing serious illnesses or alleviating the effects of aging. This system-focused approach forms the basis of systems biology research.

The starting shot for this type of research was fired in the 1990s with the Human Genome Project, whose aim was to decipher the entire human genome. At the time, Switzerland was hesitant and refrained from participating in this momentous research endeavor. While the country used the published data in subsequent years, it missed the dawn of the new era of systems biology research due to its initial hesitation.

In 2007, in order to compensate for this disadvantage, the SystemsX.ch initiative was launched. It is the largest and most comprehensive partnership of Swiss universities and research centers in the history of Switzerland. Under this umbrella, researchers from biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, engineering and computer science work closely together.

"With SystemsX.ch we launched a program that allows Switzerland to take a global lead in systems biology research," says the renowned biologist Ruedi Aebersold from ETH Zurich. "This will benefit not only the country’s image, but also the population as a whole."

Contact: Ruedi Aebersold, aebersold(at)imsb.biol.ethz.ch, +41 44 633 31 70