Fig. 1.

a An integrative biological approach to understanding the basis of DKD is necessary. This approach combines diverse sets of sophisticated expertise in an attempt to better characterize the pathophysiology of this complex disease. b Systems biology tools are used to describe the alterations seen in DKD at each point along the genome-phenome continuum. The goal is to integrate these data to visualize how alterations at specific points result in downstream events, and ultimately in the DKD phenotype.