The hurdles and promises of systems biology approaches in space radiation research

In the era of increasingly more affordable "omics" technologies and impressive advancements in artificial intelligence, big datasets can be easily generated and analyzed through novel and sophisticated approaches, allowing to study in greater details more complex experimental designs. Within this framework, systems (radiation) biology approaches could be applied to pave the way towards a correct integration of different multi-scale and temporal dynamics studies of biological systems. Radiation quality investigations at different low doses and/or dose-rates might take the maximum advantages from these advancements and therefore help in unravelling subtler differences among the biological signature of different radiation exposures, of note in space radiation research.During the presentation, the caveat and pitfalls of identifying in advance key questions to be addressed through a complex experimental setup will be discussed through examples of systems biology approaches applied to radiation biology investigations. The described scenario will serve as basis to highlight the potential advantages and limitations of different experimental designs, encouraging a careful planning in order to avoid biases and maximize the potential outcome of different radiation quality comparisons and dose/dose-rate responses.