ERASysBio plans new call for research proposals:
Finnish scientists show great interest in systems biology
11.08.2008
Many areas of scientific knowledge and inquiry, including the drive to understand the genetic mutations that underlie various diseases, are pinning high hopes on systems biology, a novel discipline that integrates knowledge from biosciences, mathematics, chemistry, physics, statistics and information technology. The European ERASysBio network, including the Academy of Finland, is expecting to launch a new call for research proposals, probably by the autumn.
The first Finnish Programme Manager for ERASysBio, Sirpa Nuotio from the Academy of Finland, says that the programme got underway in 2005 with the first pilot call SysMo, which was focused on microorganisms. Prior to this, European scientists and funding bodies had been testing the ground for research cooperation in the field of systems biology for a couple of years. Finland did not participate in the pilot that involved six European countries, even though the Academy had its own ongoing research programme on systems biology and bioinformatics (SYSBIO).
The SYSBIO programme that ended last year involved 21 research projects and 54 research teams. Academy funding to the programme amounted to nine million euros, Tekes contributed with 1.7 million.
A large number of foreign scientists were involved in SYSBIO.
“In October we will be conducting an evaluation to see how well the programme met its objectives,” says Merja Kärkkäinen, who took over as Programme Manager for SYSBIO and ERASysBio from the beginning of this year.
New approach
Systems biology is still a relatively new discipline and is therefore all the time coming up with new ideas, tools and information. “Systems biology is above all about a new approach. It combines and integrates different disciplines in order to understand biological processes,” Nuotio explains.
A key focus for systems biology is to explore the complex mechanisms that are involved in the regulation of genes, proteins and various metabolic products. It does this by compiling information from different sources and by processing, organising, standardising, distributing and analysing that information. Ethical issues are also on the research agenda.
“Often this information comes from major research projects and extensive series of experiments conducted in different parts of the world. Indeed, one of the objects for ERASysBio is to figure out how to make the best of the huge mass of information available on a European scale,” Nuotio says.
16 partners and 13 countries
“Even though we decided not to join the first call, we’ve still been involved in the cooperation among science funding agencies,” Kärkkäinen adds. Finland’s role in this process has included an investigation of the status quo of research in Europe.
ERASysBio involves 16 partners from 13 European countries. The network is currently planning to open a new call for research proposals in autumn 2008. “I hope that this time Finland will join in. As our own SYSBIO programme has been wrapped up, we need new sources of funding.”
Professor Riitta Lahesmaa, Director of the Turku Centre for Biotechnology, was in charge of a SYSBIO consortium that comprised three research teams. “My own team were interested in the specialisations of white blood cells and in the pathogenesis of allergies and asthma,” Lahesmaa says.
She believes that many of the research teams that were involved in SYSBIO would be interested in the funding available through ERASysBio. “At least we at the Turku Centre for Biotechnology are extremely keen and interested in the approaches offered by systems biology. They present interesting new opportunities for cooperation among scientists here in Europe as well.”
Lahesmaa’s own research team received an extension to their funding for systems biology research into white blood cells through the EU FP7 last April.
Fantastic prospects
Lahesmaa says the Academy’s SYSBIO programme was a great success in terms of its international cooperation and its interdisciplinarity, which lies at the very core of systems biology. “It’s not always easy for different disciplines to work so closely together, even though the results often are very interesting. It takes time for experts in different fields to learn one another’s language.”
For this reason alone research in systems biology is extremely challenging. “It’s good that science funding agencies encourage researchers to engage in interdisciplinary research, which requires that extra effort.”
Lahesmaa and her colleagues in Turku became interested in the systems biology approach from the very outset in the early 2000s, when the concept and the discipline were first launched. “The prospects for systems biology are quite fantastic as we can now obtain comprehensive measurements of cell specialisation, for instance. The results of systems biology research are leading scientists to new unpredictable hypotheses and further to more in-depth investigations.”
Lahesmaa also applies systems biology approaches to stem cell research, which is another of her areas of interest.
Text: Tiina Ruulio
More information:
www.erasysbio.net
The website provides a link to the strategy paper “Systems Biology in the European Research Area”, which outlines the discipline’s future needs and prospects.
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