The Role of Engineers in the Systems Biology Revolution
What happens when biologists and engineers get together to study the natural world? Today’s ID the Future from the archive spotlights systems biology and the role engineers can play in leading-edge biology. Today’s host is Eric Anderson. According to his guest Steve Laufmann, systems biology, which is taking the biological world by storm, is an approach that treats biological systems as optimally or near-optimally engineered systems, and seeks to better understand these systems. Laufmann says this provides an opening for engineers to contribute, since they have a deep understanding of what it takes to make a complex system work, and what’s required to change one core aspect of an engineered system so that it continues to work with all other crucial parts of the system.
Laufmann notes that many biologists aren’t trained in a systems biology approach, and most engineers aren’t trained in the details of biology. Laufmann argues that the way forward is to get engineers and biologists talking, train biologists in engineering principles, and train engineers in biology. Laufmann and Anderson also discuss a recent conference they helped organize, the Conference on Engineering in Living Systems (CELS). Near the end of their conversation, Anderson asks Laufmann to tease some of the research work coming out of the conference, and Laufmann points to one researcher’s work on the bacterial flagellum, with more projects and research on the horizon.
Dig Deeper
- Learn more about a systems biology approach to the human body in Laufmann’s recently co-authored book Your Designed Body.