title: Would Virchow be a systems biologist? A discourse on the philosophy of science with implications for pathological research.
abstract: Research in pathology spans from merely descriptive work to functional studies, "-omics" approaches and, more recently, systems biology. The work presented here aims at placing pathological research into an epistemological context. Aided by Rudolf Virchow, we give an overview on the philosophy of science including the Wiener Kreis, Popper, Kuhn, Fleck and Rheinberger and demonstrate their implications for routine diagnostics and science in pathology. A focus is on the fields of "-omics" and systems pathology.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany. albrecht.stenzinger@charite.de
authors.forename: Albrecht
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stenzinger
authors.forename: Frederick
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Klauschen
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wittschieber
authors.forename: Wilko
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Weichert
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Denkert
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dietel
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roller
mesh_terms: D010336:Pathology; D010684:Philosophy; D012106:Research; D012586:Science; D049490:Systems Biology