IsisCB Explore

Thesis ID: CBB723000522

Using A Computational Approach to Study the History of Systems Biology: From Systems to Biology, 1992-2013 (2016)

Maienschein, Jane A. (Advisor)
Laubichler, Manfred Dietrich (Advisor)
Yawen Zou (Author)

Maienschein, Jane A.
Laubichler, Manfred Dietrich
Arizona State University
Publication date: 2016
Language: English

URI: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1812961333?accountid=12964

Outside Links

Systems biology studies complex biological systems. It is an interdisciplinary field, with biologists working with non-biologists such as computer scientists, engineers, chemists, and mathematicians to address research problems applying systems’ perspectives. How these different researchers and their disciplines differently contributed to the advancement of this field over time is a question worth examining. Did systems biology become a systems-oriented science or a biology-oriented science from 1992 to 2013? This project utilized computational tools to analyze large data sets and interpreted the results from historical and philosophical perspectives. Tools deployed were derived from scientometrics, corpus linguistics, text-based analysis, network analysis, and GIS analysis to analyze more than 9000 articles (metadata and text) on systems biology. The application of these tools to a HPS project represents a novel approach. The dissertation shows that systems biology has transitioned from a more mathematical, computational, and engineering-oriented discipline focusing on modeling to a more biology-oriented discipline that uses modeling as a means to address real biological problems. Also, the results show that bioengineering and medical research has increased within systems biology. This is reflected in the increase of the centrality of biology-related concepts such as cancer, over time. The dissertation also compares the development of systems biology in China with some other parts of the world, and reveals regional differences, such as a unique trajectory of systems biology in China related to a focus on traditional Chinese medicine. This dissertation adds to the historiography of modern biology where few studies have focused on systems biology compared with the history of molecular biology and evolutionary biology.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB723000522

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Constantinos Mekios; (2016)
Organizing principles as tools for bridging the gap between system theory and biological experimentation (/p/isis/citation/CBB453240305/)

Chapter Roberto Serra; (2015)
Proprietà generiche nei sistemi complessi (/p/isis/citation/CBB320748884/)

Book Johnson, Steven; (2001)
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software (/p/isis/citation/CBB000501125/)

Article Terada, Motoichi; (2006)
La sphygmologie chinoise et la mise au point d'une nouvelle conception vitaliste de l'économie animale par des vitalistes montpelliérains (/p/isis/citation/CBB000771785/)

Article Íñigo Ongay de Felipe; (2021)
The Universality of Science and Traditional Chinese Medicine (/p/isis/citation/CBB491161982/)

Article Xia, Jin; Zhang, Hongzheng; (2004)
Consideration of the Problem of Whether Ancient China Had Science: The Scientific Nature of Ancient Chinese Medicine (/p/isis/citation/CBB000401216/)

Essay Review Gordin, Michael; Schweber, Sam; (2002)
Thinking Systematically: Thomas and Agatha Hughes, Systems, Experts, and Computers (/p/isis/citation/CBB000201224/)

Article Aris, John; (2000)
Inventing Systems Engineering (/p/isis/citation/CBB000112001/)

Book Sebastian Vehlken; (2019)
Zootechnologies: A Media History of Swarm Research (/p/isis/citation/CBB504746255/)

Article Scheid, Volker; (2014)
Convergent Lines of Descent: Symptoms, Patterns, Constellations, and the Emergent Interface of Systems Biology and Chinese Medicine (/p/isis/citation/CBB001450053/)

Article Fridolin Gross; Nina Kranke; Robert Meunier; (2019)
Pluralization Through Epistemic Competition: Scientific Change in Times of Data-Intensive Biology (/p/isis/citation/CBB374064986/)

Book Michel Morange; (2020)
The Black Box of Biology: A History of the Molecular Revolution (/p/isis/citation/CBB035364586/)

Article Bernd Rosslenbroich; (2009)
Patterns and Processes in Macroevolution (/p/isis/citation/CBB447582249/)

Article Bechtel, William; (2010)
The Cell: Locus or Object of Inquiry? (/p/isis/citation/CBB001023957/)

Article Calvert, Jane; (2012)
Systems Biology, Synthetic Biology and Data-Driven Research: A Commentary on Krohs, Callebaut, and O'Malley and Soyer (/p/isis/citation/CBB001221589/)

Article Michael Fry; (2020)
Ontologically Simple Theories Do Not Indicate the True Nature of Complex Biological Systems: Three Test Cases (/p/isis/citation/CBB515852529/)

Article Thomas Kirchhoff; (2020)
The Myth of Frederic Clements’s Mutualistic Organicism, or: On the Necessity to Distinguish Different Concepts of Organicism (/p/isis/citation/CBB621023099/)

Article Michael Fry; (2018)
Predictive Hypotheses Are Ineffectual in Resolving Complex Biochemical Systems (/p/isis/citation/CBB002665433/)

Article Miles MacLeod; Nancy J. Nersessian; (2015)
Modeling systems-level dynamics: Understanding without mechanistic explanation in integrative systems biology (/p/isis/citation/CBB511081415/)

Article Green, Sara; Wolkenhauer, Olaf; (2013)
Tracing Organizing Principles: Learning from the History of Systems Biology (/p/isis/citation/CBB001420760/)