Strategies for structuring interdisciplinary education in systems biology: An European perspective
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2016

Systems Biology is an approach to biology and medicine that has the potential to lead to a better understanding of how biological properties emerge from the interaction of genes, proteins, molecules, cells and organisms. The approach aims at elucidating how these interactions govern biological function by employing experimental data, mathematical models and computational simulations. As Systems Biology is inherently multidisciplinary, education within this field meets numerous hurdles including departmental barriers, availability of all required expertise locally, appropriate teaching material and example curricula. As university education at the Bachelor’s level is traditionally built upon disciplinary degrees, we believe that the most effective way to implement education in Systems Biology would be at the Master’s level, as it offers a more flexible framework. Our team of experts and active performers of Systems Biology education suggest here (i) a definition of the skills that students should acquire within a Master’s programme in Systems Biology, (ii) a possible basic educational curriculum with flexibility to adjust to different application areas and local research strengths, (iii) a description of possible career paths for students who undergo such an education, (iv) conditions that should improve the recruitment of students to such programmes and (v) mechanisms for collaboration and excellence spreading among education professionals. With the growing interest of industry in applying Systems Biology approaches in their fields, a concerted action between academia and industry is needed to build this expertise. Here we present a reflection of the European situation and expertise, where most of the challenges we discuss are universal, anticipating that our suggestions will be useful internationally. We believe that one of the overriding goals of any Systems Biology education should be a student’s ability to phrase and communicate research questions in such a manner that they can be solved by the integration of experiments and modelling, as well as to communicate and collaborate productively across different experimental and theoretical disciplines in research and development.

Systems biology

Education

Författare

Marija Cvijovic

Chalmers, Matematiska vetenskaper, Tillämpad matematik och statistik

Thomas Höfer

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)

Jure Aćimović

Univerza V Ljubljani

Lilia Alberghina

Universita' degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Eivind Almaas

Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet

Daniela Besozzi

Universita' degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Anders Blomberg

Göteborgs universitet

Till Bretschneider

The University of Warwick

Marta Cascante

Universitat de Barcelona

Olivier Collin

Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)

Pedro De Atauri

Universitat de Barcelona

Cornelia Depner

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)

Robert Dickinson

Imperial College London

Maciej Dobrzynski

University College Dublin

Christian Fleck

Wageningen University and Research

Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Didier Gonze

Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels

Jens Hahn

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Heide Marie Hess

SystemsX.ch

Susanne Hollmann

LifeGlimmer GmbH

Marcus Krantz

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Ursula Kummer

Universität Heidelberg

Torbjörn Lundh

Chalmers, Matematiska vetenskaper, Tillämpad matematik och statistik

Gifta Martial

Universität Heidelberg

Vítor Martins Dos Santos

Wageningen University and Research

Angela Mauer-Oberthür

Universität Heidelberg

Babette Regierer

LifeGlimmer GmbH

Barbara Skene

Imperial College London

Egils Stalidzans

Latvijas Universitate

Jörg Stelling

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

B. Teusink

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

C. T. Workman

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)

Stefan Hohmann

Chalmers, Biologi och bioteknik

npj Systems Biology and Applications

20567189 (eISSN)

Vol. 2 16011

Ämneskategorier

Didaktik

Pedagogik

Systemvetenskap

DOI

10.1038/npjsba.2016.11

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2024-01-03