Cardiac lineage selection: integrating biological complexity into computational models

The emergence of techniques to study developmental processes using systems biology approaches offers exciting possibilities for the developmental biologist. In particular cardiac lineage selection may be particularly amenable to these types of studies since the heart is the first fully functional organ to form in vertebrates. However there are many technical obstacles that need to be overcome for these studies to proceed. Here we present a brief overview of cardiomyocyte lineage deterimination and discuss how different aspects of this process either benefit from or present unique challenges for the development of systems biology approaches.