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European Conference on Complex Systems

Principle of Systems Biology illustrated using the Virtual Heart

author: Denis Noble, Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford

Description

Highest systems property:

“The living organism does not really exist in the milieu extérieur but in the liquid milieu intérieur … a complex organism should be looked upon as an assemblage of simple organisms … that live in the liquid milieu intérieur.”

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Slides
0:00 The principles of Systems Biology illustrated using the virtual heart
1:09 ? Systems Biology ?
2:32 Publication of Claude Bernard‘s classic Introduction à l’étude de la médecine expérimentale
2:40 Highest systems property
3:24 On mathematics
4:32 On mathematics - but
4:53 The problem we face today both resembles that faced by Bernard and differs from it.
6:20 Some principles of Systems Biology - Biological functionality is multi-level - part 1
7:12 Some principles of Systems Biology - Biological functionality is multi-level - part 2
7:42 Some principles of Systems Biology - Biological functionality is multi-level - part 3
8:56 Some principles of Systems Biology - Biological functionality is multi-level - part 4
9:09 Some principles of Systems Biology - Transmission of information is NOT one-way
10:33 The reductionist causal chain
11:54 Selfish Genes
13:23 Genes as Prisoners
14:56 Unravelling complexity
15:49 Example of protein interaction in a cell model Reconstructing the heart’s pacemaker
20:11 Some principles of Systems Biology - DNA is NOT the sole transmitter of inheritance - part 1
21:54 Some principles of Systems Biology - DNA is NOT the sole transmitter of inheritance - part 2
22:12 Some principles of Systems Biology - DNA is NOT the sole transmitter of inheritance - part 3
22:22 Some principles of Systems Biology - DNA is NOT the sole transmitter of inheritance - part 4
24:26 Some principles of Systems Biology - Theory of (biological) Relativity
25:19 Some principles of Systems Biology - Gene ontology will fail without higher-level insight
27:31 Some principles of Systems Biology - There is no ‘genetic program’
29:49 Peter Hunter –the Auckland model ventricle
30:27 Spread of excitation wave in whole ventricle model
30:44 Impact-induced arrhythmia
31:49 Breakdown of re-entrant arrhythmia into fibrillation
32:27 Human cell model
32:42 Re-entrant arrhythmia in human model
33:05 Some principles of Systems Biology - There are no programs at any other level
34:26 Some principles of Systems Biology - No programs at any level –including the brain! - part 1
34:54 Some principles of Systems Biology - No programs at any level –including the brain! - part 2
35:26 Some principles of Systems Biology - No programs at any level –including the brain! - part 3
36:04 Some principles of Systems Biology - The self is an integrative process not an object or substance
36:43 Some principles of Systems Biology - There are many more to be discovered!
37:41 Concluding remarks

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Reviews and comments:

Comment1 alex finck, January 31, 2008 at 3:41 p.m.:

Very good and refreshing!

The questions at the end are worth listening. The lecture is very philosophical but it makes a point.


Comment2 alejandro , October 6, 2009 at 8:08 p.m.:

Great lecture. I like his point on metaphors. However, I find funny how he says that non-dualistic philosophies (no right and wrong) are right.


Comment3 Mike Tones, October 24, 2009 at 9:24 p.m.:

Interesting critique of Richard Dawkins' genecentric view of Biology. I think it is possible that because Dawkins is aiming at a mass audience he adopts metaphor and perhaps takes it beyond the point where it is truly valid for the sake of not confusing the lay person. Noble is targeting a much more sophisticated audience and so doesn't have to compromise the complexity. Another way of viewing Noble's position is that he is trying to reassert the status of Physiology as a discipline after it has suffered because of the explosion in molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics etc. He is completely correct that the end point of the reductionist approach has to be able to recreate the system in model form. If you can do that and replicate all of its behaviours this is the only way you can know that you truly understand it. This is the future of physiology - to integrate all of the molecular and cellular information back to the organ (and ultimately whole body) level.

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