Biological insight, high-throughput datasets and the nature of neuro-degenerative disorders.
Life sciences are experiencing a historical shift towards a quantitative, data-rich regime. This transition has been associated with the advent of bio-informatics: mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists and statisticians are now commonplace in the field, working on the analysis of ever larger data-sets. An open question regarding what should drive scientific progress in this new era remains: will biological insight become increasingly irrelevant in a world of hypothesis-free, unbiased data analysis? This piece offers a different perspective, pin-pointing that biological thought is more-than-ever relevant in a data-rich setting. Some of the novel highthroughput information being acquired in the field of neuro-degenerative disorders is highlighted here. As but one example of how theory and experiment can interact in this new reality, our efforts in developing an idiopathic neuro-degenerative disease hematopoietic stemcell ageing theory are described.
Biocant Systems Biology Group, Biotechnology Innovation Center, Cantanhede, Portugal. andre.valente@biocant.pt
André X C N
AX
Valente
Paulo J
PJ
Oliveira
Svetlana F
SF
Khaiboullina
András
A
Palotás
Albert A
AA
Rizvanov
D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000209:etiology*