博文
系统生物学的冬天
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Winter of systems biology
Like tide in the ocean, the fashion of scientific research is also going up and down. Systems biology, which many people hailed as a new way to do biology in the era of high-throughput technology, has gone booming in the past 10 years. Many universities, including Harvard, MIT and many other top-tier universities, opened new department of systems biology or other inter-disciplined center of physics, mathematics and biology . However, since last year, the research of system biology had a big blow in Europe. Germany stopped funding four systems biology center at the end of last year: Heidelberg, Potsdam, Freiburg and Magdeburg. Any new funding need special review to meet the criteria of having the potential for biomedical application in the near future. UK stopped the base funding for six national systems biology center. They can still apply for funding based on individual projects but they lose all favoring policy for systems biology. Many PhDs and PostDocs who are trained in this field begin to worry about their future. They are afraid that you will not find any research positions in systems biology any more in the current funding atmosphere.
Why does systems biology enter the winter recently? I think that there may be three reasons:
1. Systems biology does not deliver
Problems for systems biology is like any new trends in science, when the pioneers want to sell their ideas for politicians and general public, they oversell their ideas and promise more than what they can offer. The price tag for human genome project was about $3 billion. The advocates of this project promised to find genes for many disease, such as cancers, diabetes, Alzheimer etc. However, when the project is finished around 2003 (the year when the first human genome draft was published), people found that they opened a empty treasure box. There are no simple genes for many common disease such as cancer and diabetes etc. People use GWAS to find many disease related genes but they only explain 10% of heredity which involves in these disease. There are still the heredity in the darkness.
Compared with 'one-gene-one-traits', systems biology is one step further to address the complicate mapping between genotypes and phenotypes. Like its procedesor of human genome project, it promised to find the cure for cancer, new generation of bio-fuel from engineered bacterias etc. After more than 10 years special funding for systems biology, tax payers and politicians in Europe did not see the breakthrough promised by systems biology. So they withdraw their support.
2. Systems biology does not tell us something new
The biggest problem is that many research in systems biology are simply summaries of known biological facts with abstract mathematical language. Biologists keep on asking: what does systems biology tell us something which we don't know? Unfortunately the answer is usually NO.
3. Systems biology is used for funding in disguise for genetics and bioinformatics
Dennis Nobel pointed out in his speech, that more than 90% of funding for systems biology are used to do research in the traditional field of genetics and bioinformatics. Many inter-discipline centers in the universities are set up by putting people from various departments which have little chance to gain funding. Then they are under the umbrella of 'systems biology' to get funding. When the pie drawn in the sky disappear, they fall back to the ground in a harsh way.
It is interesting now to read the news to promote UK systems biology 5 years ago.
<END>
Systems biology research needs more funding, now
By Mike Nagle, 12-Feb-2007
Related topics: Preclinical Research
Systems biology research, a groundbreaking approach to drug development, is not being given the financial backing it deserves by the UK government, according to a new report.
The "Systems Biology: a vision for engineering and medicine" report, by The Royal Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Medical Sciences, has called for three to five new centres of excellence for systems biology research to be established in order to prevent the UK falling behind other countries. The centres would cost approximately 488m Euro over the next 10 years. Systems biology is an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to understand how individual components interact and dictate the overall function of a complex biological system. The sector uses an iterative cycle of computer models and laboratory experiments to model cells, organs or even whole organisms.
Considering the bigger picture would lead to a more efficient drug discovery process so that innovative drugs can be brought to patients faster and more cheaply, argues the report.
"Now is an exciting time for research, we have the tools and data for Systems Biology to benefit the UK in early access to medical advances and create economic opportunities to commercialise research in key economic sectors such as pharmaceuticals and engineering," said Sir Colin Dollery, joint chair for the working group.
The US currently leads the way in many aspects of systems biology research with rapid growth in Japan and Europe threatening to overshadow "patchy" UK research. The report stated that, without increasing systems biology research in the UK, top researchers will be attracted abroad and the pharma industry could be tempted to look to the US, South Asia and the Far East for research and development opportunities.
"Success could make the UK a leader in a key field; failure could have serious repercussions on scientific and economic progress with the UK losing its competitive edge over other countries such as the US and Japan," he concluded.
The identity of all the proteins that exist in humans is not yet known, never mind their function. New disease-related genes and proteins are discovered all the time but understanding their role within a biological system, rather than in isolation, is tremendously difficult. Protein molecules, for example, do not function alone but as part of multifaceted assemblies and pathways.
To tackle the problem, systems biology, takes data from molecular biology and genomics research to build and test complex mathematical models. These models can then be used to study many more situations and variables than traditional experiments alone. The results can then drive more targeted laboratory experiments, which in turn can feed data back into the models.
This cycle of building knowledge requires input from a wide range of fields, including the physiological, pharmacological, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences.
As well as more funding, the report also calls for education reforms to ensure future generations of scientists are sufficiently prepared to work in a highly interdisciplinary sector. Specifically, postgraduate courses in systems biology should be created or extended.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), have already started to address the problem with a series of initiatives, spending millions in the process. However, the report called for more to be done such as establishing several new centres of excellence for systems biology research that would address education problems and allow UK research in the field to be consolidated.
The centres would be created within leading universities and also networked to smaller centres in other universities. The report also said that it is "essential that centres seek collaborations with industry and the National Health Service to ensure that projects of high national economic importance receive priority."
Professor Richard Kitney, the other joint chair of the working group, added: "Funding in the UK has recently been increased but is hampered by an overall lack of specialists in the required disciplines. To grasp this exciting opportunity further resources must be committed now."
By Mike Nagle, 12-Feb-2007
Related topics: Preclinical Research
Systems biology research, a groundbreaking approach to drug development, is not being given the financial backing it deserves by the UK government, according to a new report.
The "Systems Biology: a vision for engineering and medicine" report, by The Royal Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Medical Sciences, has called for three to five new centres of excellence for systems biology research to be established in order to prevent the UK falling behind other countries. The centres would cost approximately 488m Euro over the next 10 years. Systems biology is an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to understand how individual components interact and dictate the overall function of a complex biological system. The sector uses an iterative cycle of computer models and laboratory experiments to model cells, organs or even whole organisms.
Considering the bigger picture would lead to a more efficient drug discovery process so that innovative drugs can be brought to patients faster and more cheaply, argues the report.
"Now is an exciting time for research, we have the tools and data for Systems Biology to benefit the UK in early access to medical advances and create economic opportunities to commercialise research in key economic sectors such as pharmaceuticals and engineering," said Sir Colin Dollery, joint chair for the working group.
The US currently leads the way in many aspects of systems biology research with rapid growth in Japan and Europe threatening to overshadow "patchy" UK research. The report stated that, without increasing systems biology research in the UK, top researchers will be attracted abroad and the pharma industry could be tempted to look to the US, South Asia and the Far East for research and development opportunities.
"Success could make the UK a leader in a key field; failure could have serious repercussions on scientific and economic progress with the UK losing its competitive edge over other countries such as the US and Japan," he concluded.
The identity of all the proteins that exist in humans is not yet known, never mind their function. New disease-related genes and proteins are discovered all the time but understanding their role within a biological system, rather than in isolation, is tremendously difficult. Protein molecules, for example, do not function alone but as part of multifaceted assemblies and pathways.
To tackle the problem, systems biology, takes data from molecular biology and genomics research to build and test complex mathematical models. These models can then be used to study many more situations and variables than traditional experiments alone. The results can then drive more targeted laboratory experiments, which in turn can feed data back into the models.
This cycle of building knowledge requires input from a wide range of fields, including the physiological, pharmacological, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences.
As well as more funding, the report also calls for education reforms to ensure future generations of scientists are sufficiently prepared to work in a highly interdisciplinary sector. Specifically, postgraduate courses in systems biology should be created or extended.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), have already started to address the problem with a series of initiatives, spending millions in the process. However, the report called for more to be done such as establishing several new centres of excellence for systems biology research that would address education problems and allow UK research in the field to be consolidated.
The centres would be created within leading universities and also networked to smaller centres in other universities. The report also said that it is "essential that centres seek collaborations with industry and the National Health Service to ensure that projects of high national economic importance receive priority."
Professor Richard Kitney, the other joint chair of the working group, added: "Funding in the UK has recently been increased but is hampered by an overall lack of specialists in the required disciplines. To grasp this exciting opportunity further resources must be committed now."
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-3468-620338.html
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