Interactome networks: the state of the science

A report on the joint Cold Spring Harbor/Wellcome Trust Meeting 'Interactome Networks', Hinxton, UK, 31 August-4 September 2005. High-throughput analyses are identifying the DNA, RNA, proteins and metabolites within a biological system with increasing accuracy and speed. As a result, we now have a relatively detailed understanding of the components that make up the dynamic and temporal characteristics of the cell. In most cases, however, we know very little about how the individual components work together to carry out specific biological functions. To get over this hurdle, it will be necessary to map how individual biomolecules interact with one another within a larger network of molecular interactions (the so-called 'interactome') in the cell as a whole. Mapping this network is the shared goal of an increasing number of researchers from the UK, Europe, US, and Japan, who gathered at the first annual Cold Spring Harbor/Wellcome Trust meeting on interactome networks in Hinxton. This meeting provided an opportunity to review the recent experimental and computational advances that have been applied to uncover biomolecular interactions. Here we report a few of the key advances in the areas of new interaction-mapping techniques, new experimental reagents and resources, and new computational tools for understanding interaction networks that were presented at the meeting.