Systems in Biology

The main goal of the proposed research is to make use of earlier biological system approaches to help develop modern system accounts in the life sciences. Special emphasis is laid on work of the pioneering system thoughts of Paul Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy and their potential contribution to the growing field of "systems biology." Recent articles on system approaches and on systems biology in particular show that Weiss is rarely mentioned and that credit is only occasionally given to Bertalanffy, although the latter is seen as a precursor of systems biology. Both authors have provided a considerable amount of theoretical work towards system concepts in biology. This work must be consulted and adapted to modern scientific currents in order to tackle the present scientific problems and open questions. The premise is that these resources have a strong potential for modern system thinking in biology, and the aim of this project is therefore to make them fruitful. The present project has two principal purposes. On the one hand, basic characteristics of systems biology will be reflected and made explicit by confronting them with early system approaches in biology. Our approach involves analysing firstly the scientific problems on which systems biology is focusing, but also motivations, concepts, methods, and assumptions of today`s research framework based on the former "system theory of life" or the "organismic approach." This is mainly pursued in order to clarify the present state of systems biology. On the other hand, we expect to contribute concepts and methods to a (theoretical and empirical) research framework based on the findings obtained in pursuing the first purpose. The aim is to provide ways forward with regard to the problems being tackled in systems biology, inspired by early systems thought. The research program is motivated by requests from both laboratorians and theoreticians. The laboratory scientists and experimentalists request an enrichment of the conceptual apparatus in order to deal with the empirically produced data. The theoreticians and philosophers emphasise that the explanatory power of systems biology is low and that several philosophical questions, both epistemological and ontological, remain open. This project will contribute to solving both problems. The investigations will be based on research that dealt with the conceptual connection between Weiss and Bertalanffy, as well as on Bertalanffy`s early system thinking. It will be accomplished mainly in cooperation with Professor Olaf Wolkenhauer (Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Rostock), Professor Ana Soto (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston), the Rostock-based Centre for Logic, Theory and History of Science (ZLWWG), philosophers from the Philosophical Foundations of Systems Biology (PSBio) project, and the Vienna-based Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS).

The main goal of the project was to make use of earlier biological system approaches for modern system research in the life sciences. In the course of the project, which focused on contributing to systems biology, it became evident that the early widely unknown works of Ludwig von Bertalanffy on the theory of evolution are highly relevant for evolutionary systems biology. Even though the experimental research methods and quantification procedures have progressed enormously in the last decades, the theoretical considerations on system issues by Paul A. Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy are still valid. In fact, they anticipated many modern notions, e.g. on the concept of homology a core concept in evolutionary biology. Also the notion that biological evolution is constrained due to the system of interactions among characters can be traced back to Bertalanffys rather scattered but original work on evolution. The results show as well how Rupert Riedls important evolutionary approach is based on the system approaches of Weiss and Bertalanffy. These considerations on the connection between the system approach and the theory of evolution are also important to fields beyond biology. They are relevant for the broader field of systems science.Todays systems biology is a field with a number of roots. One of them is the more engineering-biased (first order) cybernetics. A comparison between Bertalanffys general system theory (GST) and cybernetics is therefore also important for systems biology; especially because the former was developed based on biological research. Nevertheless, for Weiss and Bertalanffy the machine concept was a constant companion from which the organism was distinguished. This research project, however, demonstrated that the two threads of systems science are not mutually exclusive. Even though regulation in a biological system can work differently than via a pre-established cybernetic system, both can be brought under the umbrella of a uniting mathematical formalism, which was shown many years ago. A main difference between GST and cybernetics is the organismic approach in the former and the machine approach in the latter a fact that is also reflected in differences of world view. This and several other issues, such as the philosophical underpinnings of the two areas which are not as different as many think , were analysed in detail, yielding a review article that was missing in the literature.The organismic approach and in particular the organism concept are also relevant for medicine. The organism concept is a (if not the) core concept for all biological disciplines, and hence also for medicine. Especially the project partners from the field of cancer research are highly interested in overcoming a mere molecular approach and in integrating all interactions among the different levels in an organism. The results from this project support this endeavour and underline the urgent need for a theoretical biology that puts the organism concept in the centre as was done by Bertalanffy.