Top-down standards will not serve systems biology

Marvin Cassman and his colleagues, in their Commentary “Barriers to progress in systems biology” ( Nature 438 , 1079; 2005), discuss the development of standards in systems-biology research. We agree with the need for well-curated databases, software systems that can work together to analyse such data and integrated models that can deliver the fruits of systems-based research to laboratory biologists. But we have concerns about the proposed solution, which is presented as a ‘top-down’ approach that ignores many existing and emerging standards. It seems based on false assumptions about the research community and ignores the community it is intended to serve.