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James P. Collins |
“What role does life play in
the metabolism of planet Earth?” asks a 2007 National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) report The Role of Theory in Advancing 21st Century Biology:
Catalyzing Transformative Research, which goes on to note: “Metabolic
pathways, which are the means by which organisms acquire the energy and
material components they need to survive and reproduce, have a profound
global impact.”
Physiology is often linked with the study of the human body, but basic
research questions in physiology extend well beyond biomedicine.
Physiologists have a unique set of perspectives and integrative skills for
answering a range of fundamental questions in biology.
At a time when Earth’s climate is changing rapidly as a result of global
warming, physiologists will play an important role in advancing our
understanding of what aspects of climate change stress organisms, and how
such organismal changes in turn will drive global processes. Responses to a
changing environment will include altered metabolic pathways and networks in
individuals, and in populations. Our ability to cope with and forecast the
changes associated with global warming will require scientists of all kinds
who want to study the intricacies of Earth’s complex systems.
We need to improve our understanding of the non-linear relationships of
Earth’s systems in order to predict which biological components will be
robust in the face of change in physical or biological variables and which
will be resilient. Developing these predictive capabilities requires
identifying the fundamental rules governing emergent properties of
organisms, determining whether the rules apply broadly to all organisms, and
understanding whether these rules apply to multiple levels of biological
organization: to cellular dynamics as well as to ecosystem structure and
function.
We now have much greater insight into how the parts of organisms function,
but the big challenge will be explaining how organisms respond as integrated
systems.
Physiologists offer an important perspective on organismal function and
performance because they apply knowledge about the physical sciences to
biological systems while also using the life sciences to advance our
comprehension of physical systems. They offer skills for revealing physical
properties in biological contexts such as pressure, force, temperature, ion
fluxes, oxygen fluxes, and enzyme kinetics. Conversely, recent research has
shown, for example, that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected
to alter plant physiology in ways that lead to increased continental runoff
due to atmospheric changes.
The NAS report talks of melding the study of physiology with that of
geochemistry, physics, genomics, and other sciences in “systems geobiology,”
a way of understanding the processes and feedback mechanisms influencing
Earth’s overall metabolism: “…global metabolic fluxes are the cumulative
result of the specific capabilities of individual molecules, powering
individual cells in different organisms, which themselves interact in many
different communities.”
Organismal biology links the dynamics of the geosphere, biosphere, and
atmosphere.
Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology: Where We’ve Been
Understanding how organisms work within an environmental framework is a
long-standing theme in the history of physiology. Claude Bernard’s important
conceptual contribution, milieu interieur, at the beginning of modern
experimental physiology focused on the need to understand the
physical-chemical properties of the aqueous environment of cells to uncover
physiological principles.
Another milestone includes Walter Cannon’s concept of homeostasis, a
cornerstone in studies of organismal response to external environmental
change—although not necessarily applicable to all organisms. A growing body
of literature about mechanisms of response to environmental change, such as
enantiostasis, is extending this fundamental concept.
Studying how organisms function in their natural environments fosters an
appreciation of life’s diversity and of the great variation in how organisms
function. Increasingly well-resolved molecular phylogenies and the
development of modern comparative evolutionary methods have been important
factors in the progress of evolutionary physiology.
21st Century Integrative Biology: Where We’re Going
Addressing the challenges of biology in the 21st century will require
physiologists, like all biologists, to develop a wider view of our science.
Today’s integrative biology is directed toward advancing an understanding of
interconnected, complex systems. Insights will come from the collective
contributions of teams of investigators as well as those of individual
researchers. In the process, the boundaries of what “counts as biology” will
broaden to embrace even more of the theories and concepts of physics,
chemistry, engineering, geological sciences, and the social and behavioral
sciences.
Ecological and evolutionary concepts, so central to the maturation and
practice of modern comparative studies in physiology, have resulted in a
community trained to consider the environment as a larger framework
essential to understanding the function of organisms—and understanding why
organisms function as they do. The ability of physiologists to apply methods
and principles from other disciplines, particularly the physical sciences
and engineering, and to conduct integrative studies crossing multiple levels
of biological organization, demonstrates a great breadth of scientific
perspective and expertise.
Physiologists have a central role to play in understanding complex
biological systems. Finding answers to 21st century questions in biology
will require the critical cross-disciplinary perspectives and skills
characteristic of integrative and comparative biology.
NSF Funding Opportunities for Physiologists
NSF’s Biological Sciences Directorate (BIO) recently changed the
organizational structure of one of its divisions to better reflect the
challenges of 21st Century biology. The Integrative Organismal Biology
Division is now Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS). The change emphasizes
increasing support for studies that apply systems biology approaches to gain
new conceptual and theoretical insights about organismal properties (http://www.nsf.gov/bio/ios/about.jsp).
IOS encourages systems approaches that combine experimentation, computation,
and modeling that lead to a greater understanding of the emergent properties
of organisms, such as resilience, robustness, and adaptability, and a
greater capacity to predict organismal response to changing conditions. The
new IOS emphases reflect a need to advance our understanding of complex
biological systems, and a need to support teams of researchers who can apply
multi-disciplinary insights and approaches.
In addition to opportunities within IOS, BIO supports physiologists through
a number of additional programs and activities:
Research Coordination Networks (RCN) Program
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=11691&org=EF
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13584&org=EF
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13450&org=EF
Advancing Theory in Biology (ATB) Program
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501066&org=EF
National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13440&org=DBI&from=home
NCEAS focuses on the “…development and testing of important ecological ideas
and theories using existing data ...” The long history of ecophysiological
and environmental physiology studies for advancing a mechanistic
understanding of ecological patterns and ecological theory could be explored
through NCEAS-supported working groups.
Similarly, NESCent focuses on synthetic approaches “…to foster a greater
conceptual synthesis in biological evolution….” The wealth of published
physiological data could be productively “mined” to advance a synthetic
understanding of evolutionary physiology. Comparative and evolutionary
physiologists, for example, can play a significant role in this context
through their expertise in addressing the evolution of physiological
systems.
The Research Coordination Networks program fosters “…interactions among
scientists to create new research directions or advance a field.” RCN
supports novel networking ideas, and communication and coordination of
research, education, and training activities among groups of investigators
“…across disciplinary, organizational, institutional, and geographical
boundaries.” Physiologists participating in integrative biology projects
requiring the development of new teams of researchers would be a good match
for RCN funding.
The Advancing Theory in Biology (ATB) Program is a new activity in BIO aimed
at understanding “…emergence of complex biological phenomena from dynamic
interactions among less complex elements…” through support of new
conceptualizations and theoretical approaches. Physiologists might use ATB
as a source of support for advancing an understanding of the rules by which
emergent properties of organisms arise through the interactions of
components.
On the horizon, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is being
designed to provide a continental-scale research network of geographically
distributed infrastructure at 20 core sites, connected via state-of-the-art
cyberinfrastructure. Scientific teams will be able to conduct collaborative,
comprehensive, and interdisciplinary measurements and experiments on
ecological systems. NEON’s synthesis, computation, and visualization
infrastructure will create a virtual laboratory for the development of a
predictive understanding of the direct effects and feedbacks among
environmental changes and biological processes. Comparative and evolutionary
physiologists can contribute significantly by providing unique perspectives
and skills to this central scientific goal of NEON.
“The diverse living things of our world are endlessly fascinating,” wrote
the authors of the NAS report on the role of theory in biology. BIO offers a
range of programs that support infrastructure and human resources, as well
as research from molecules to ecosystems. The mission of the BIO Directorate
is to enable the discoveries for understanding life. Central to realizing
that mission is the basic research in physiology needed for understanding
the organisms that are “endlessly fascinating.” |
