“Network Target” Theory and Network Pharmacology

In the biomedical big data and artificial intelligence era, pioneering interdisciplinary information science research, life science, and medicine are represented by a complex biological network which has attracted increasing attention from researchers. Complex biological network includes qualitative and quantitative description of the relationship between tissues, cells, and molecules in an organism. It lays the foundation for constructing complex biological systems, and is also an important bridge connecting information science, life science, and medicine. Network pharmacology has two distinct characteristics regarding current scientific and technological background. Firstly, it promotes the moving from “reductionism” to “system-based theory”, which is widely considered as “the next generation medicine research mode.” Secondly, the accumulation of modern biomedical big data and the development of artificial intelligence as well as other computing methods provide an important driving force for the development of network pharmacology.