So what's it all about (Alfie)?

The area of biology that I've landed in is fairly new and it's known as Systems Biology. As in all new developments it is not without controvesy. No-one's exactly defined what Systems Biology is, so all sorts of work has appeared under the Systems Biology banner. The wikipedia entry for Systems Biology reflects this ambiguity. Naturally, with researchers eager to make the most of their work, the banner has been subject to a little abuse, but such is life.

Really, it's about understanding the behaviour that emerges when you put together a network of biological interactions. This can be on almost any scale, from the study of epidemics to the analysis of cellular biochemistry and the work that I do sits at the small end of this spectrum.

We try to get to grips with how the cell works in terms of its constituent genes, proteins and RNAs. Actually, this isn't strictly true. We work on one specific cell, the macrophage, part of the immune system, and we study only one part of its function.

Even though this is very small area, it is a taxing task. There are several groups around the world working in this niche and it takes a huge amount of money and a huge amount of manpower to make progress. Vastly more than is generally spent in the mathematical sciences (excluding gargantuan collider projects and the like). It makes your wonder just how much wonga and workforce would be needed to comprehensively explore every cell type. This humbling thought becomes depressing when you consider how far this puts us from getting a solid understanding of how the whole body works at a genetic level. It certainly won't happen in my lifetime.