Metabolism is a foundational process in all living cells. In fact, the ability to metabolize is considered as one of the criteria for being considered a living organism. Metabolism is directly or indirectly involved in essentially all cellular functions and is implicated in all major human disease states. With the state of the annotation of the human genome, it has been possible to perform an initial reconstruction of the genome-scale metabolic network in Homo sapiens. This genome-scale reconstruction opens unprecedented opportunities for basic research in human physiology and disease. The Center for Systems Biology is focused on these newly emerging opportunities and deploys the rapidly developing discipline of systems biology.