OPUS: Geological, Environmental, and Chemical Biology

任何系统，无论是自然的还是人为的，如果把它的结构和历史放在一起考虑，就能更好地理解。生命系统也不例外。然而，在过去的一个世纪里，形成生物内部纳米级和微观结构的分子和细胞通常与生物本身的历史分开研究。这剥夺了生物学作为生物技术和医学的一门科学和商业核心的某种力量，这种力量可能来自于综合考虑其分子、生物体、生态系统和历史的工具。这个NSF OPUS项目将利用化学、生物学和地质学的最新进展，以及本纳博士实验室二十年来的工作，将这些学科结合在一个垂直的综合中。该项目将为研究人员提供工具，以促进实验室中的这种合成，包括历史上组织人类基因组的数据库，检测分子适应的计算工具，以及在实验室中测试历史假设的实验策略。该项目还将为希望参与这一综合的学生提供教学材料。许多疾病，包括高血压和糖尿病，反映了我们的基因组对我们最近的灵长类祖先所经历的环境快速变化的不完美适应。许多晚期癌症的并发症，包括进化上“现代”的前列腺癌和乳腺癌的并发症，都涉及细胞通过分子变化来适应医学干预。分子生物学中的许多数据，从蛋白质的晶体结构到人类基因组，在缺乏历史背景的情况下并不能传达任何特定的意义。由于这些和其他原因，将通过OPUS项目推进的合成应该对整个生物学产生影响，无论是纯的还是应用的。

Any system, natural or man-made, can be better understood when its structure and history are considered together. Living systems are not exceptions. Nevertheless, over the past century, the molecules and cells that form the nanoscopic and microscopic structures within organisms have generally been studied separately from the histories of the organisms themselves. This has deprived biology, both as a science and a business central to biotechnology and medicine, of certain power that might come from tools that consider together its molecules, organisms, ecosystems and histories.This NSF OPUS project will exploit recent advances in chemistry, biology and geology, together with two decades of work in Dr. Benner's laboratory, to combine these disciplines in a vertical synthesis. The project will produce tools for the researcher to facilitate this synthesis in the laboratory, including databases that historically organize the human genome, computational tools to detect molecular adaptation, and experimental strategies to test historical hypotheses in the laboratory. The project will also deliver instructional materials for students who wish to participate in this synthesis.Many diseases, including hypertension and diabetes, reflect imperfect adaptation of our genome to rapid changes in the environments experienced by our recent primate ancestors. Many complications of advanced cancers, including those of the evolutionarily "modern" prostate and breast, involve the adaptation of cells via molecular change in response to medical intervention. Much data in molecular biology, from the crystal structures of proteins to the human genome, does not convey any particular meaning in the absence of a historical context. For these and other reasons, the synthesis that will be advanced through this OPUS project should have impact throughout biology, pure and applied.