[...living systems are made as systems of signs...Sebeok T.A.]
To understand complex protein-based signaling networks we need a systematic approach. The mathematical modeling seems to be the most suitable to describe the cross-talk of signaling protein networks such as the cytokines. Since this is an exchange of information, it seems obvious to refer to Shannon's theory which has solid mathematical foundations. At the moment, we do not know whether communication at the cellular level is more efficient than the one developed by humans, but the concept of noise as formulated by Shannon can not be applied "tout court" at the cellular level, especially because redundancy in biology seems to be a mechanism to reduce the noise.
http://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0022519313005183
Jacques Thierie
Because I believe that we enter a post-genomic era, I think that all information pertaining to "metabolomics" have to be explored. So, my response is: yes we need to discover new "holistic" methods to best apprehend intra cellular communications process.
Noise process maybe a valuable approach as it was developped by René Lefever (See in Research gate).
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