What is at stake in the post-genomic turning point?
26 April 2006, 16:00, EMBL Large Operon
Michel Morange, Centre Cavaillès, École Normale Supérieure
The generally held view is that the rise of post-genomics corresponds to a fading of the reductionist vision which dominated biology over the previous decades. We will challenge this view by showing that the structural side of molecular biology has never before been as active as it is now. In contrast, post-genomics corresponds to an active process of de-abstraction with the progressive disappearance of notions which dominated the previous biological landscape, as genes and information.
Post-genomics is not a hollow recipient, an illusory way to attract more money after the huge investments in the human genome project, but rather reflects the increasing necessity to link the molecular explanations with other modes of explanation, i.e. physical and Darwinian explanations. This necessity is the mere result of the success of the molecular approach, which has reached its limits. The physical studies of isolated molecules, evo/devo biology and the development of synthetic biology are different examples of the need to merge molecular explications with the physical and evolutionary explanations that we will discuss in this lecture.
What will be the future of this active process of synthesis and combination? The rise of a new discipline, similar to the rise of molecular biology in the 1930s and 1940s? The parallel between the views that were dominant at that time, and those associated with the entry into the post-genomic era, might support this hypothesis. Another possibility is that the linking of these views will lead to huge advances in different areas of biological research, without bringing about the major synthesis that so many look for.