Padilla Dianna K, Tsukimura Brian
*Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245, USA; Department of Biology, California State University, Fresno, CA 93740, USA
*Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245, USA; Department of Biology, California State University, Fresno, CA 93740, USA.
Integr Comp Biol. 2014 Jul;54(2):218-22. doi: 10.1093/icb/icu038. Epub 2014 Jun 19.
The amount of knowledge in the biological sciences is growing at an exponential rate. Simultaneously, the incorporation of new technologies in gathering scientific information has greatly accelerated our capacity to ask, and answer, new questions. How do we, as organismal biologists, meet these challenges, and develop research strategies that will allow us to address the grand challenge question: how do organisms walk the tightrope between stability and change? Organisms and organismal systems are complex, and multi-scale in both space and time. It is clear that addressing major questions about organismal biology will not come from "business as usual" approaches. Rather, we require the collaboration of a wide range of experts and integration of biological information with more quantitative approaches traditionally found in engineering and applied mathematics. Research programs designed to address grand challenge questions will require deep knowledge and expertise within subfields of organismal biology, collaboration and integration among otherwise disparate areas of research, and consideration of organisms as integrated systems. Our ability to predict which features of complex integrated systems provide the capacity to be robust in changing environments is poorly developed. A predictive organismal biology is needed, but will require more quantitative approaches than are typical in biology, including complex systems-modeling approaches common to engineering. This new organismal systems biology will have reciprocal benefits for biologists, engineers, and mathematicians who address similar questions, including those working on control theory and dynamical systems biology, and will develop the tools we need to address the grand challenge questions of the 21st century.
生物科学领域的知识量正以指数级速度增长。与此同时，新技术在收集科学信息方面的应用极大地加快了我们提出并回答新问题的能力。作为有机生物学家，我们该如何应对这些挑战，并制定研究策略，使我们能够解决这个重大挑战问题：生物体如何在稳定性和变化之间走钢丝？生物体和生物系统在空间和时间上都是复杂且多尺度的。显然，用“照常营业”的方法无法解决有关有机生物学的重大问题。相反，我们需要众多专家的合作，并将生物信息与工程学和应用数学中传统的更具定量性的方法相结合。旨在解决重大挑战问题的研究项目需要有机生物学子领域内的深厚知识和专业技能，需要不同研究领域之间的合作与整合，还需要将生物体视为一个综合系统来考虑。我们预测复杂综合系统的哪些特征使其在不断变化的环境中具备稳健性的能力还很薄弱。我们需要一门预测性的有机生物学，但这将需要比生物学中通常使用的方法更具定量性的方法，包括工程学中常见的复杂系统建模方法。这种新的有机系统生物学将对研究类似问题的生物学家、工程师和数学家产生互惠的益处，这些问题包括控制理论和动态系统生物学方面的问题，并且将开发出我们应对21世纪重大挑战问题所需的工具。
