The Markey Scholars Conference Proceedings (2004) / Chapter Skim
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8 The New Biology
8 The New Biology
Pages 73-79
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From page 73... ...
University of Wisconsin I was contacted by Jim Kadonaga and asked to take a look into the future and describe what I saw at that edge -- for which I call, "The New Biology." I believe right now that biology is in the midst of a major paradigm shift, and I think a lot of it is due to advances in information technology and the new systems that provide huge experimental data sets. Information technology is going to enhance the way that we do science in many ways, giving opportunities and challenges to a broad range of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.
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From page 74... ...
Now we can deal with single cells, in a new way, with the intent of building capacious ensembles from complex measurements obtained from a large number of individually interrogated cells. The goal is to be able to perform sophisticated experiments within a single cell and to acquire data sets that encompass large cell populations, which simultaneously require and potentiate statistical interpretation.
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From page 75... ...
Chance favors the prepared mind -- I think that is a quote from Louis Pasteur, who was an accomplished chemist as well as a pioneering microbiologist. In the New Biology, the ultimate experimental space is a single molecule, or a single cell, or a single-molecule system rapidly analyzed at high resolution over a large population.
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From page 76... ...
Particle physicists work at very high energies, and their "city-sized" experiments produce incredibly large data sets that establish their functional loop between hypothesis and empirical data. At the European Or
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From page 77... ...
If we were to equate this to something more biological, and this is not a perfect analogy, it means that the human genome dataset could be decoded in seconds, and lately we can envision systems that might be able to do this. Evaluating screens for point mutations means finding one mutation in a genome that is 30,000 times larger than the human genome; however, beautifully designed genetic screens can be designed for specific criteria, which similarly scale.
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From page 78... ...
In essence, you want to develop complex experimental systems that intrinsically self-assemble, or are very simple to manipulate in terms of bringing disparate experimental motifs, or components, together in a controllable way by the experiment assembler. (At the University of Wisconsin, we are developing components for the experimental assembler, in terms of systems that can either self-assemble or are simple to manipulate in terms of bringing massive numbers of experimental components together in a logical way.)
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From page 79... ...
I believe, however, that industry will always have superior resources and organization to pursue these problems and the reasons are all obviously based on economic considerations. It is a lot different writing a RO1 and getting funded, as opposed to going after a drug that can yield perhaps a billion dollars in profit.
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