Molecular systems biology represents an interdisciplinary field. To operate in this field a practitioner needs to know the basic life science disciplines (biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, physiology, etc), the genomic and high- throughput sciences, bioinformatics (statistics, algorithms and large-scale data analysis), and engineering sciences (numerics, modeling and simulation). Thus a molecular systems biology program will need participation from the natural sciences, engineering and medicine.

The Center for Systems Biology at the University of Iceland is indeed such an interdisciplinary effort. The University of Iceland will be significantly impacted by the establishment and growth of the Center and it will nucleate new research and education.