Systems training in maths informatics and computational biology (SySMIC)

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Amongst others Sir Martin Rees, the President of the Royal Society, has stated that 'the problems of physics are the problems of scale, the problems of biology are the problems of complexity.' This keen insight captures a profound truth about the traditional divide between scientific disciplines. Traditionally mathematics and computing have been powerful allies in the elucidation of the problems of physics but while effective in biology they are not so widely used. For most of modern history the complexity in living systems has not been routinely unapproachable with mathematics and computing - either too little biology was well enough described, the appropriate maths tools did not exist or the performance of computers was too slow. This has all changed recently and now it is time to take maximum advantage. While the BBSRC and other agencies in the UK and institutions around the world have made great investments in specialist research centres it is now time to mobilise the larger mass of UK bioscientists. Biologists of all disciplines, working from the scale of atoms and molecules to that of living ecosystems, must make their contribution and provide their hard-won biological insight to complement the efforts of mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists and engineers who are already exploring the new territory in the emerging discipline of systems biology. To be effective biologists must learn to speak the common language of the physical and engineering science - applied mathematics and computing. They must learn to apply their skills without hesitation and to engage with the other scientific disciplines enthusiastically - SysMIC will start to make this possible. The SysMIC project's over riding aim is to enable rapid and effective 'up-skilling' of a large body of biologists and to accelerate their entry into systems biology and drive the successful study and manipulation of complex biological systems.