A complex biological individual as the human one - although at this level of abstraction, the same thing would apply to almost every developed mammal - can be viewed as a multi-level network-of-networks. Note that on each level, the corresponding network can be (and it probably will be) a network-of-networks, because it is made of a certain number of sub-networks, generally larger at the hierarchically “lower” levels. Thus, a genome is made of underlying molecular networks, it represents its emergent properties, and it binds the possible development through the constraints exercised by the downward feedback processes. A similar mechanism operates between the genes and cells networks, and between them and the ones represented by the functional organs.

- Natural Sciences Papers