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J. B. Gurdon introduces this Focus issue by discussing the importance of the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells 10 years ago and current challenges for the development of cell replacement therapies.
Computational models that reproduce and predict the detailed behaviours of cellular systems form the Holy Grail of systems biology. They require decades of work to integrate mathematical-modelling efforts, data on molecular-interaction networks and information on the physics of cellular structures. The challenges are formidable, but recent advances indicate that this endeavour looks increasingly feasible.