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There is a perception in the scientific community that the discipline of Physiology
is in crisis, or at least, in a phase of profound transition and change. At the root of
the problem is confusion between objectives (the biological questions to be solved)
and the methods and technologies to be applied. Traditionally, ever since Claude
Bernard’s concept of the “milieu interieur,” Physiology was an integrative science
with the prime concern of studying regulatory mechanisms leading to adaptation
and homeostasis in the presence of challenges from a dynamic internal and external
environment. This study of control mechanisms can be applied on any level of function
whether subcellular, cellular, and organ, but reaches its highest level of
complexity with the functioning of the body as a whole and its interaction with the
external environment. This involves the determination of the interaction of genetic with
environmental factors and the resulting integrated body adaptation.
It might seem obvious that in the pursuit of these questions any appropriate
combination of techniques on any organizational level could be used. Yet the
advent of molecular techniques has resulted in a preoccupation with the problems
and challenges inherent in these techniques, sometimes at the expense of the
original perspectives and concepts. The many new mechanisms that have been
discovered at the molecular level, as well as their economical exploitation, have
contributed to a climate of reductionism. However, despite the undeniable and
spectacular successes of molecular biology, the lack of, and need for, an integrative
perspective has become evident. This is particularly true in many clinical cases of gene
and drug therapies that failed despite promising results from defined animal models.
Integrative Physiology in the Proteomics and Post-Genomics Age represents an
attempt to highlight the major questions and accomplishments of modern physiological
research. It re-addresses the fundamental questions of the classical concept, incorporating
information gained from new molecular, genetic, and cellular technologies. |