Workshop: Frontiers of Multidisciplinary Research: Mathematics, Engineering and Biology

现代科学探究正日益模糊传统学科的界限。这在生物学中尤其如此。从这一趋势中出现的两个重要领域是系统生物学和合成生物学。前者旨在通过利用理论和实验的迭代研究周期来实现对生理过程分子基础的系统级理解，而后者旨在利用这种理解来设计生物系统。这些领域共同产生重大的科学、社会和经济影响，从增加基础科学知识到卫生和生物技术方面的新应用。系统生物学和合成生物学都是从数学家、物理学家和工程师越来越多地参与解决生物学问题中产生的。今天，数学建模和计算模拟被大量用于分析和预测生物系统的动力学。这些研究可以更好地理解生物数据，产生新的假设和实验设计，以及生物工程应用的发展。更重要的是，这些数学和计算方法允许思想和概念的发展，以解释生物现象的普遍水平，而不是在特定生物体的水平。换句话说，它们构成了寻求理解生物学规则和原理的研究的重要组成部分。另一方面，数学和工程学在研究生物问题方面的参与推动了数学、工程和计算机科学广泛领域的进步。后一种进步的例子包括基于生物网络研究的健壮网络的设计和开发，以及受生物系统分析启发或用于生物系统分析的新计算机语言和建模算法的开发。在数学领域，解决生物学问题的挑战导致了耦合随机方程、分岔分析和延迟微分方程等领域的一些发展和应用。总之，结合实验观察、数学建模和数值模拟对生物系统进行分析是一个前沿的研究领域。如上所述，为了使这一领域在理论和实验领域保持和发展其影响，促进实验生物学家、数学家、物理学家和工程师之间的互动至关重要。目前的学科界限不利于科学家之间的互动；来自不同领域的科学家通常在大学校园里占据不同的建筑，在各自领域的期刊上发表文章，参加不同的科学会议。现有的科学会议通常分为两类；专门讨论特定科学问题的小型会议，以及涵盖广泛领域的大型会议。前者的目标是一个特定的（和小的）科学家群体，他们已经知道彼此的工作（并且可能合作），而后者的目标是一个不同的科学家群体，但通常不允许特定的互动发展，因为它们的规模大，演讲计划拥挤。更可取的是，在保持大型会议的多样性的同时，不要牺牲小型会议的友好互动结构。特别是，一个不拥挤的演示程序，良好嵌入的讨论环节和一组精心挑选的演讲者，他们来自不同但相互关联的领域，可以作为理论和实验领域科学家之间讨论和互动的促进者。

Modern scientific inquiry is increasingly blurring traditional discipline boundaries. This is particularly the case in biology. Two important fields emerging from this trend are systems and synthetic biology. The former aims to achieve a system-level understanding of the molecular basis of physiological processes by utilising an iterative research cycle of theory and experiment, whilst the latter aims to utilise such an understanding to engineer biological systems. Together these fields are making significant scientific, social and economic impacts, ranging from increased knowledge in basic science to novel applications in health and biotechnology.Both systems and synthetic biology have emerged from the increased involvement of mathematicians, physicists and engineers in the addressing of biological questions. Today, both mathematical modelling and computational simulations are heavily used in analysing and predicting the dynamics of biological systems. These studies allow a better understanding of biological data, the generation of new hypotheses and experimental designs, and the development of biological engineering applications. More importantly, these mathematical and computational approaches allow the development of ideas and concepts to explain biological phenomena at a universal level rather than at the level of specific organisms. In other words, they form an important component of research that seeks an understanding of biological rules and principles .On the other side, the engagement of mathematics and engineering in studying biological questions drives the advancement of wide-ranging areas of mathematics, engineering and computer science. Examples of latter advancements include the design and development of robust networks based on studies of biological networks and the development of new computer languages and modelling algorithms inspired by or used for biological system analysis. In the field of mathematics, the challenge of addressing biological problems has led to several developments and applications in the areas of coupled stochastic equations, bifurcation analysis and delayed differential equations.In summary, the analysis of biological systems using a combination of experimental observations, mathematical modelling and numerical simulation presents itself as a cutting-edge research field. For this field to sustain and develop its impact in both theoretical and experimental fields, as explained above, the facilitation of interaction among experimental biologists, mathematicians, physicists and engineers is vital. Current disciplinary boundaries do not facilitate interaction among scientists; scientists from different fields usually occupy different buildings at university campuses, publish in journals specific to their field and attend different scientific meetings. Existing scientific meetings usually fall into two categories; small meetings specialising on a specific scientific question, and large meetings covering a wide field. The former target a specific (and small) group of scientists who are already aware of each others work (and potentially collaborating), while the latter target a diverse group of scientists but usually do not allow specific interactions to develop due to their large size and a crowded presentation programme. What is more desirable is to maintain the diversity of larger meetings while not sacrificing the interaction-friendly structure of small meetings. In particular, an un-crowded presentation program, well-embedded discussion sessions and a carefully selected set of speakers from diverse but connected fields can act as a facilitator of discussion and interaction among scientists from theoretical and experimental domains.