Interdisciplinarity as both Necessity and Hurdle for Progress in the Life Sciences
Interdisciplinarity as both Necessity and Hurdle for Progress in the Life Sciences
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跨学科性是生命科学进步的必要性和障碍
DOI：
10.1007/978-94-007-5845-2_18
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Hofmeyr J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Wolkenhauer O;Hofmeyr J
对整个生物体的基因组进行测序的能力已经在生命科学的科学实践中产生了根本性的变化。随着组学的革命，研究细胞系统的生物学家已经变得依赖于其他学科的支持和合作。随着生物信息学背景下细胞成分的鉴定和表征，近年来重点转移到基因调控网络、信号转导和代谢途径方面决定细胞功能的机制研究。这种对功能活动的理解和细胞过程的转移需要系统理论的方法，因此需要来自计算机科学和物理学以外的其他领域的专业知识。从那时起，术语“系统生物学”已经与实现数据驱动建模和模型驱动实验实践的跨学科方法联系在一起。随着系统生物学的发展，数学模型已经成为生物学论证的核心要素，因此，跨学科合作的新质量已经成为必要。“建模者”或“理论家”不再扮演简单的支持角色。相反，模型的构建和分析需要两者——“实验主义者”和“建模者”在“视线水平”处会面，追求一个共同的问题，并相互依赖。本文讨论了系统生物学的实践，相对于在这个领域的跨学科合作提供的障碍和机会。主要结论是，真正的跨学科合作努力是生命科学进步的必要条件，但这些努力受到阻碍这些项目成功的学术结构和实践的阻碍。
The ability to sequence the genome of entire organisms has produced a fundamental change in the scientific practice of the life sciences. With the Omics revolution, biologists working with cellular systems have become dependent on the support of and collaboration with other disciplines. Following the identification and characterization of cellular components in the context of bioinformatics, the focus has shifted in recent years to the study of mechanisms that determine the functioning of cells in terms of gene regulatory networks, signal transduction and metabolic pathways. This shift of focus towards an understanding of functional activity and therefore towards cellular processes required methodologies from systems theory and thus expertise from other fields than computer science and physics. Since then, the term ‘systems biology’ has become associated with an interdisciplinary approach that realizes a practice of data-driven modelling and model-driven experimentation. With systems biology, mathematical models have become a central element in the formulation of biological arguments and as a consequence, a new quality of interdisciplinary collaboration has become necessary. The “modeller” or “theoretician” no longer plays a simple supportive role. Instead, the construction and analyses of the models require both – the “experimentalist” and “modeller” to meet at “eye level”, pursue a common question, and rely upon each other. The present text discusses the practice of systems biology with respect to the hurdles and opportunities provided by interdisciplinary collaborations in this field. The main conclusion is that truly interdisciplinary collaborative efforts are a necessity for progress in the life sciences but these efforts are hampered by academic structures and practices that prevent these projects from succeeding.