Systems training in maths informatics and computational biology (SySMIC)

英国皇家学会主席马丁·里斯爵士曾说过：“物理问题是尺度问题，生物学问题是复杂问题。”这种敏锐的洞察力捕捉到了关于科学学科之间传统鸿沟的深刻真相。传统上，数学和计算在阐明物理问题方面一直是强大的盟友，但尽管它们在生物学中很有效，但它们并没有得到广泛的应用。在现代历史的大部分时间里，生命系统中的复杂性并不是数学和计算经常无法达到的--要么是生物学描述得太少，要么是适当的数学工具不存在，要么是计算机的性能太慢。这一切最近都改变了，现在是时候最大限度地利用优势了。尽管BBSRC和英国的其他机构以及世界各地的机构在专业研究中心方面投入了大量资金，但现在是时候动员更多的英国生物科学家了。所有学科的生物学家，从原子和分子的规模到生命生态系统的研究，都必须做出贡献，提供来之不易的生物学见解，以补充数学家、计算机科学家、物理学家和工程师的努力，这些人已经在探索系统生物学这一新兴学科的新领域。为了提高效率，生物学家必须学会说物理和工程科学的共同语言--应用数学和计算。他们必须学会毫不犹豫地应用他们的技能，并热情地参与到其他科学学科中--SysMIC将开始使这成为可能。SysMIC项目的首要目标是使一大批生物学家能够快速有效地提高技能，加速他们进入系统生物学，并推动对复杂生物系统的成功研究和操作。

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.