Std Research: The whys and hows of establishing new model systems in biology and neuroscience

这一生物哲学研究项目得到了NSF科学、技术和社会计划的支持，并由SBE和生物理事会通过一封敬爱的同事信--生物学对社会的影响--联合提供支持。越来越多的研究清楚地表明，作为一个研究界，我们必须更仔细地考虑所选的生物和模型进行研究，特别是关于决定选择的目的以及这些生物和模型是否真的适合手头的任务。关于是否以及如何扩大生物学和行为科学中的模型系统的多样性，如何在特定领域内确定新的模型系统的优先顺序，以及如何在生物学中更普遍地证明这种优先顺序的练习的合理性，必须做出重要的决定。研究的重点将集中在两个科学领域，在这两个领域，科学家们正在积极尝试扩大模型系统的保留范围：进化发展生物学(EVO-DEVO)和认知神经科学。这一考试将主要是哲学的，尽管深深植根于相关科学的细节，历史上有很好的基础，合作，并得到定性数据收集、综合和分析的支持。科学史学家和科学哲学家作出了重大贡献，特别是在建立当前实验模型的历史上，以及在对历史和当代实验方法的哲学批评方面。但这一基础性学术并未针对历史分析和哲学批评，对可能和可取的未来轨迹提供任何前瞻性分析。这个项目试图用模型生物体来填补生物学和行为研究的历史和哲学上的空白。在要求“转化性研究”为公共科学资金提供临床、经济或其他投资回报的背景下，科学家们越来越多地被要求不仅向彼此证明他们的研究是合理的，而且要公开、热情地，最重要的是，诚实地证明他们的研究是合理的。这项拟议的研究将开始让生物学家掌握有关特定研究计划的益处和局限性的新知识，以及扩大生物和行为科学知识库的策略。

This research project in the philosophy of biology is supported by the Science, Technology and Society program at NSF and jointly by the SBE and BIO directorates by way of a Dear Colleague Letter, Impacts of Biology on Society. A growing body of studies shows clearly that we have to think much more carefully as a research community about the organisms and models chosen for study particularly with regards to the purposes informing the choice and whether those organisms and models really are the right ones for the tasks at hand. Important decisions must be made about whether and how to expand the variety of model systems in biology and behavioral science, about how to prioritize new model systems within specific domains, and about how to justify such prioritization exercises in biology more generally. The focus of the research will be on two areas of science in which scientists are actively attempting to expand the repertoire of model systems: evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) and cognitive neuroscience. This examination will be primarily philosophical, though deeply embedded in the details of the relevant science, historically well-grounded, collaborative, and supported by qualitative data collection, synthesis, and analysis. Historians and philosophers of science have made significant contributions especially to the history of the establishment of current experimental models, as well as to the philosophical criticism of historical and contemporary experimental approaches. But this foundational scholarship has not provided any prospective analysis of possible and desirable future trajectories in response to historical analysis and philosophical criticism. This project seeks to fill this gap in the history and philosophy of biological and behavioral research with model organisms. In a context of demands for 'translational research' to provide a clinical or economic or other return-on-investment for public funding of science, scientists are increasingly called upon to justify their research not just to each other, but also publicly, enthusiastically, and, above all, honestly. The proposed research will begin to equip biologists with new knowledge about the benefits and limitations of particular research programs and about strategies for expanding the knowledge-base of biological and behavioral science.