Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America ; Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America ; Department of Cell Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
PLoS Biol. 2013 Dec;11(12):e1001734. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001734. Epub 2013 Dec 10.
Although we have a good grasp of many important processes in cell biology, including knowledge of many molecules involved and how they interact with each other, we still do not understand most of the dynamical features that are the essence of living systems. Fortunately, we now have the ability to dissect biological systems in enough detail to understand their dynamics, including the use of mathematical models to account for past observations and predict future experiments. This deep level of mechanistic understanding should be our goal—not simply to satisfy our scientific curiosity, but also to understand the causes of disease well enough to predict risks, make early diagnoses, and treat effectively. Many big questions remain to be answered before we reach this goal of understanding cellular dynamics.
虽然我们对细胞生物学中的许多重要过程有了很好的理解,包括了解许多涉及的分子以及它们如何相互作用,但我们仍然不了解生命系统本质上的大多数动态特征。幸运的是,我们现在有能力对生物系统进行足够详细的剖析,以了解它们的动态特性,包括使用数学模型来解释过去的观察结果并预测未来的实验。这种深层次的机械理解应该是我们的目标——不仅是为了满足我们的科学好奇心,也是为了足够了解疾病的原因,以便预测风险、进行早期诊断和有效治疗。在我们达到理解细胞动态的目标之前,还有许多重大问题有待回答。