Genome Biology

The Human Genome Project has brought the science of biology to a crossroads. The result of genomic research is a mass of data and information that over the next few years will require biologists to embark upon the biggest program of analysis the discipline has ever seen. For a science with little experience of analysing such massive data sets, the biological community will have to adopt a more interdisciplinary approach in order to fulfil the promise of genomic science, says Professor Andrew Murray writing in the first issue of Genome Biology.

"The prodigious flow of data from genomics must draw into our circle mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists and others who have thought hard about how to analyze enormous quantities of sparsely connected data," says Murray, from the University of California at San Francisco. At the lowest level, Murray argues, genomic science produces data like the contents of a phone book, and it is developing the methods that turn such data into useful information and information into knowledge that are key to developing our understanding further and fulfilling the promise of genomic research.

"Biology may experience a split like the one in physics between those who collect and those who analyse data," says Murray, "This will challenge the majority of biologists who believe that modelling, simulation, and theory have little to contribute to biology." Murray also suggests that "big" research programs, such as the Human Genome Project itself, will soon be replaced by much smaller efforts to gain knowledge and understanding from raw genomic data. "Small science will adapt and prosper," says Murray, " Bright students in small labs are already seizing on genomics as a way to devise clever, new approaches to old and difficult problems. To make sure that we use people and money well, biologists and their patrons need to vigorously debate where genomics is going".