Each cell is a factory that produces and exports molecules in small packages called vesicles. The 2013 Nobel Prize honours three scientists who have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Südhof have revealed the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.

  To fulfill systems biology’s promise of providing fundamental new insights will require the development of quantitative and predictive models of whole cells. In this issue, Karr et al. present the first integrated and dynamic computational model of a bacterium that accounts for all of its components and their interactions.

Eugene Grishin and Sergei Lukyanov have been elected full members of the Russian Academy of Sciences