ICSU bio-unions satellite symposium

A systems biological view of Evolutionary Biology: all in the interactions

It is becoming clear that variation in organisms can be created by many different processes, including the gradual mutation idea of the Modern Synthesis, but also including larger changes through natural genome engineering, various forms of inheritance of acquired characteristics, symbiogenesis, genetic assimilation. Indeed, evolution itself must have evolved. The question how these mechanisms relate to each other is a fascinating new area for systems biology.

References

Noble, D. (2011) Neo-Darwinism, the Modern Synthesis, and Selfish Genes: are they of use in physiology?, Journal of Physiology 589, 1007-1015.

Noble, D. (2013) Physiology is rocking the foundations of evolutionary biology, Experimental Physiology.

About Denis Noble

Denis Noble is Emeritus Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology. He now directs the computational physiology research group. He was the first to model cardiac cells (in two papers in Nature in 1960) and has published over 350 research papers.

He is one of the leaders of Systems Biology and has written the first popular book on Systems Biology, The MUSIC of LIFE (OUP, 2006).