Systems training in maths informatics and computational biology (SySMIC)

Amongst others Sir Martin Rees, the President of the Royal Society, has stated that 'the problems of physics are the problems of scale, the problems of biology are the problems of complexity.' This keen insight captures a profound truth about the traditional divide between scientific disciplines. Traditionally mathematics and computing have been powerful allies in the elucidation of the problems of physics but while effective in biology they are not so widely used. For most of modern history the complexity in living systems has not been routinely unapproachable with mathematics and computing - either too little biology was well enough described, the appropriate maths tools did not exist or the performance of computers was too slow. This has all changed recently and now it is time to take maximum advantage. While the BBSRC and other agencies in the UK and institutions around the world have made great investments in specialist research centres it is now time to mobilise the larger mass of UK bioscientists. Biologists of all disciplines, working from the scale of atoms and molecules to that of living ecosystems, must make their contribution and provide their hard-won biological insight to complement the efforts of mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists and engineers who are already exploring the new territory in the emerging discipline of systems biology. To be effective biologists must learn to speak the common language of the physical and engineering science - applied mathematics and computing. They must learn to apply their skills without hesitation and to engage with the other scientific disciplines enthusiastically - SysMIC will start to make this possible. The SysMIC project's over riding aim is to enable rapid and effective 'up-skilling' of a large body of biologists and to accelerate their entry into systems biology and drive the successful study and manipulation of complex biological systems.

We will create a programme consisting of three distinct modules and deliver them via a bespoke Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), customised for the BBSRC, using Moodle. The aim is to allow 'students' from all levels of research activity - from new graduate students to senior PIs and lab or institute heads - to grasp the power of mathematical and computationally-driven model building to clarify biological problems of great complexity. We wish systems modelling to become routine in UK bioscience research with investigators at all levels readily creating and refining 'first-pass' or 'toy' models whenever they are faced with biological problems composed of the interaction of distinct parts. There is no other way to uncover the rules governing the emergent properties that define living systems from the molecular to the ecological scale. We will combine unique resources and expertise embedded in the member institutions of the SysMIC consortium - unsurpassed expertise in the teaching of mathamatics at a distance from the Open University; high-powered systems biology research and teaching from the BBSRC/EPSRC Systems Biology Centre in Edinburgh; mathematical and systems biological insight embedded at the first-rate bioscience and biomedical research environment at UCL and the backbone of expertise at Birkbeck College London in the delivery of high-level, technically oriented, biology through the web. Through training to use Mathematica routinely in order to lighten the burden of attacking complex problems our 'graduates' will be accelerated into systems biology study and its application to research. During the course students will move from mathematical basics to encounter their application to complex systems biological analysis through open-ended modelling projects based on real-world problems and previously validated studies.

Systems biology approaches allow the analysis of complete system behaviour, identifying robust and sensitive components and so targeting experimental power to areas with greatest potential impact and limiting wasted analysis. Some of society's current research challenges, from sustainable bioenergy to food security will only be solved by integrated research and so supporting bioscientists in developing these capabilities has the potential to yield very significant research impact. Interestingly, experience also teaches that the wider application of modelling techniques will yield new computational and mathematical challenges and drive forwards the pace of research in informatics and computer sciences. A major output from this learning initiative will be a trained cadre of mathematically literate biologists. The training provided by the SysMIC programme has the potential to reach a significant number of bioscience researchers at all levels of the career pathway. Our use of cutting edge case studies, developed in complexity through the staged learning materials, will give 'graduates' exposure to the real world application of modelling. We aim to equip researchers to develop their own preliminary models for any and all systems of interest. In the longer term this training will deliver impact identified by an increasing number of multiple Principal Investigator, potentially multiple institution, but definitely cross-disciplinary funding applications submitted to the BBSRC in responsive mode. Furthermore, developing researchers to adopt and understand systems approaches to their research will increase the opportunities for junior researchers interested in systems biology. Equipping these researchers with the ability to interact, collaborate and operate successfully across traditional discipline boundaries will drive a culture change in the employment trajectories of postdoctoral researchers. As the funding environment continues to evolve we expect that researchers who have undertaken the SysMIC programme will be better able to compete and deliver complex interdisciplinary research programmes, skills which will directly enhance their career progression. This consortium has also developed plans for private sector training, compatible with primary BBSRC responsibilities. Through relationships with Knowledge Transfer Networks, existing systems-based industry collaborations and leveraging the vast expertise of institutional Technology Transfer Offices we will promote controlled industry access to the training programme. Overall, this consortium represents a strategically significant grouping of institutional expertise, an exciting link between a Centre for Integrative Systems Biology and the wider UK research and teaching community and is an unparalleled opportunity to deliver a cost-effective e-learning initiative with far-reaching and transformative impact.