Catalyzing Inquiry at the Interface of Computing and Biology (2005) / Chapter Skim
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11 Conclusions and Recommendations
11 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 383-400
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From page 383... ...
(This is not to deny that many quantitative sciences will contribute to biology, although this report has focused primarily on the computing dimensions.) Views among biologists about where best to deploy computing resources will surely differ, but the main contributions of computing to biology will come from new ideas for solving complex biological problems and new models for testing hypotheses; from delivering cyberinfrastructure for biology research, providing ever more computing power, distributed computing and storage, complex software, fault-tolerant computing, and so forth; and from training fearless scientists who can find the right 383
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From page 384... ...
The Committee on the Frontiers at the Interface of Computing and Biology believes that such a vision for 21st century biology is realistic, and that the implementation of its recommendations would ensure decades of exponential progress and a major transformation of our understanding of life. On the other side of the interface, biological inspiration for new approaches to computing continues to be important, in the sense that biology provides existence proofs that information-processing technology based on biochemistry rather than on silicon electronics is possible.
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From page 385... ...
For example, computational biotechnology is relevant to computing in the same way that lithographic silicon fabrication technologies are today -- underpinning these latter technologies are understandings of fundamental physics and welldeveloped electrical engineering techniques and approaches. Similarly, computational biotechnology will draw on materials science and biochemistry as well as biology as it seeks to create highly regular DNA nanoparticles, mate DNA with submicron electronic structures fabricated in silicon, and create networks of interconnecting nanostructures with unique enzyme communication paths.
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From page 386... ...
increase the number of fellowships and institutional training grants at all career levels that include quantitative, computational biology and integrative systems modeling; (2) include funds to support faculty with complementary expertise (e.g., computer scientists to teach biologists)
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From page 387... ...
Neither the biologist who sees the computer scientist only as a craftsman writing computer programs for data analysis nor the computer scientist who sees the biologist as a provider of dirty and unreliable data shows respect for the other. Scientists with quantitative backgrounds and scientists with biomedical backgrounds must work as peers if their collaborations are to be successful.
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From page 388... ...
Such issues are matters of academic survival for many young faculty, and if processes are not put into place explicitly that ensure an appropriately rigorous but still fair evaluation process, promising faculty may well have strong disincentives to pursue research at the interface. A corollary is that traditional departments often see considerable opportunity cost in supporting (and granting tenure to)
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From page 389... ...
11.3 THE SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION AT THE BIOCOMP INTERFACE The pursuit of 21st century biology will require a generation of biologists who can appreciate fundamental statistical approaches, evaluate computational tools and use them appropriately, and know how to choose the best collaborators from the quantitative sciences as a whole. To support the education of this generation, an integrative education, whether formal or informal, will be needed.
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From page 390... ...
Indeed, as biology continues to examine the system-wide functioning of a large number of interacting components, engineering skills may become necessary for successful biological research. 11.3.2 Mechanisms The committee believes that the availability of individuals with significant computing expertise is an important limiting factor for the rate at which the biological sciences can absorb such expertise.5 The field, to include both basic and applied life sciences research, is extraordinarily large and dwarfs most other fields outside of engineering itself; thus, influx from other fields is not likely to result in large-scale infusion of computing expertise.
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From page 391... ...
· Content. Although genome informatics is perhaps the most obvious topic, computational techniques and approaches will become increasingly relevant to all aspects of biological research -- and educational opportunities should target a wide range of subfields in biology.
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From page 392... ...
11.4.1 Core Principles for Funding Agencies Recognition of the importance in focusing on the BioComp interface amplifies earlier agency-centered studies and reflects its unprecedented richness. Responding to the opportunities, the scientific community, private foundations, and the federal government have taken the first steps in recognizing this enormous intellectual opportunity.
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From page 393... ...
While science agencies are urging data sharing, other parts of the government can impose restrictions on sharing biomedical data associated with individual human beings in the name of privacy, and these restrictions can have significant impact on the architecture of biomedical information systems. In some cases, these regulatory compliance issues have such impact that biomedical scientists have strong incentives to introduce a paper step into their data management processes in order to escape some of the more onerous consequences of these regulations for their information systems.
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From page 394... ...
Chapter 7 discussed the importance of data repositories and digital libraries in cyberinfrastructure, and it is in these areas that other agencies have important roles to play. Across the board, agencies engaged in supporting biological research will need to support mechanisms for longterm data storage and for continuous curation and annotation of the information resources gathered in publicly supported research for 21st century biology to reach its full potential as a global distributed intellectual enterprise.
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From page 395... ...
It will also require a level of planning and agency involvement in the actual design of the cyberinfrastructure that does not typically happen in the funding of research, in which the role of program officers is primarily to ensure a fair assessment of the science by peer reviewers. In supporting cyberinfrastructure, program officers must act as procurement officers on behalf of the overall scientific community, and not just as impartial brokers of an independent discipline-focused review process.
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From page 396... ...
As noted in the Botstein-Smarr report,10 it is in these environments that it makes the most sense to train the leaders of the new generation of biologists with computing expertise. These environments are generally mature enough to support the conduct of interdisciplinary research at the interface, and a widespread geographical diffusion of young scientists with such expertise will help to generate the broad impact sought by NIH.
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From page 397... ...
11.4.3 National Science Foundation The primary large-scale initiative of NSF relevant to 21st century biology is its cyberinfrastructure effort. Efforts in this area, including major community databases, collaborative research networks, and interdisciplinary modeling efforts, will require grants that are larger than the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO)
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From page 398... ...
Wild budget fluctuations and an unpredictable funding environment that changes goals rapidly can damage the long-term prospects of a field to produce useful and substantive knowledge. Funding levels do matter, but programs that provide steady funding in the context of broadly stated but consistent intellectual goals are more likely to yield useful results than those that do not.
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From page 399... ...
In short, computing and information technology applied to biological problems is likely to play a role for 21st century biology that is in many ways analogous to the role that molecular biology has played in biological research across all fields for the last quarter century -- and computing and information technology will likely become embedded with biological research itself.
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