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Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology

Mechanistic modeling has the potential to transform how cell biologists contend with the inescapable complexity of modern biology. I am a physiologist–electrical engineer–systems biologist who has been working at the level of cell biology for the past 24 years. This perspective aims 1) to convey why...

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Autor principal: Phair, Robert D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The American Society for Cell Biology 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E14-08-1333
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author Phair, Robert D.
author_facet Phair, Robert D.
author_sort Phair, Robert D.
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description Mechanistic modeling has the potential to transform how cell biologists contend with the inescapable complexity of modern biology. I am a physiologist–electrical engineer–systems biologist who has been working at the level of cell biology for the past 24 years. This perspective aims 1) to convey why we build models, 2) to enumerate the major approaches to modeling and their philosophical differences, 3) to address some recurrent concerns raised by experimentalists, and then 4) to imagine a future in which teams of experimentalists and modelers build—and subject to exhaustive experimental tests—models covering the entire spectrum from molecular cell biology to human pathophysiology. There is, in my view, no technical obstacle to this future, but it will require some plasticity in the biological research mind-set.
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spelling pubmed-42306102015-01-20 Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology Phair, Robert D. Mol Biol Cell Perspectives Mechanistic modeling has the potential to transform how cell biologists contend with the inescapable complexity of modern biology. I am a physiologist–electrical engineer–systems biologist who has been working at the level of cell biology for the past 24 years. This perspective aims 1) to convey why we build models, 2) to enumerate the major approaches to modeling and their philosophical differences, 3) to address some recurrent concerns raised by experimentalists, and then 4) to imagine a future in which teams of experimentalists and modelers build—and subject to exhaustive experimental tests—models covering the entire spectrum from molecular cell biology to human pathophysiology. There is, in my view, no technical obstacle to this future, but it will require some plasticity in the biological research mind-set. The American Society for Cell Biology 2014-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4230610/ /pubmed/25368428 http://dx.doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E14-08-1333 Text en © 2014 Phair. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®,” “The American Society for Cell Biology®,” and “Molecular Biology of the Cell®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology.
spellingShingle Perspectives
Phair, Robert D.
Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology
title Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology
title_full Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology
title_fullStr Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology
title_full_unstemmed Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology
title_short Mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology
title_sort mechanistic modeling confronts the complexity of molecular cell biology
topic Perspectives
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E14-08-1333
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