Developments in high-throughput measurement technologies for biological molecules have created a paradigm shift in modern life science research. The field of systems biology attempts to provide a systems-level understanding by systematically organising the genomic, functional genomic and proteomic data obtained from genetic and environmental perturbations of interest and using the data to build a descriptive and mechanistic model of the biological phenomena. The goal is to build a mathematical framework with some predictive abilities. This review highlights the need for system-level understanding, lists some of the high-throughput measurement tools of importance in systems biology, reviews various types of experimental and computational approaches being used in systems biology research and attempts to address some of the challenges facing this research community.