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

这个生物学哲学的研究项目得到了NSF科学，技术和社会计划的支持，并由SBE和BIO董事会共同通过亲爱的同事信，生物学对社会的影响。越来越多的研究清楚地表明，作为一个研究团体，我们必须更加仔细地考虑选择用于研究的生物和模型，特别是关于选择的目的，以及这些生物和模型是否真的适合手头的任务。我们必须做出重要的决定，决定是否以及如何扩大生物学和行为科学中模型系统的多样性，决定如何在特定领域中优先考虑新的模型系统，以及如何在更广泛的生物学中证明这种优先考虑的做法。研究的重点将集中在科学家们正在积极尝试扩展模型系统的两个科学领域：进化发育生物学（evo-devo）和认知神经科学。这种检查将主要是哲学，虽然深深嵌入相关科学的细节，历史上有充分的基础，协作，并通过定性数据收集，综合和分析的支持。历史学家和科学哲学家做出了重大贡献，特别是对建立现代实验模型的历史，以及对历史和当代实验方法的哲学批判。但是，这种基础性的学术研究并没有对可能的和可取的未来轨迹提供任何前瞻性的分析，以回应历史分析和哲学批评。该项目旨在填补这一空白的历史和哲学的生物和行为研究与模式生物。在要求“转化研究”为科学的公共资助提供临床或经济或其他投资回报的背景下，科学家越来越多地被要求不仅相互证明他们的研究，而且公开，热情，最重要的是诚实。拟议中的研究将开始为生物学家提供关于特定研究项目的益处和局限性的新知识，以及关于扩大生物和行为科学知识基础的策略。

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.