From Molecules to Systems

Towards an Integrated Heuristic for Understanding the Physics of Life

The goal of our Network is to bring physicists and biologists to work together to tackle the challenge of integrating understanding from single molecules to systems in biology

The integration of understanding across length-scales is a problem of central importance in modern biology. Biochemistry describes molecular behaviour in a reductionist fashion that is very different from the approaches of systems biology, and yet we know that the fates of whole organisms, or ecosystems, are determined by molecular scale phenomena. The integration of understanding across length scales has also been a central challenge in physics, for example in statistical mechanics, where quantum mechanical understanding is integrated into descriptions of large ensembles of molecules.

Background to the Physics of Life Network

The ‘Physics of Life’ (PoL) is an EPSRC current Grand Challenge research theme, first launched in 2012 by a NetworkPlus grant. The first phase of the grant (PoLNET1) ran from 2012-2016 with the overall aim: ‘to develop a unified framework for understanding biology that integrates the molecular and the system levels of thinking into a coherent, unified whole’.
 
During this first phase a coherent interdisciplinary Biological Physics community was created. This community was fostered through a series of core activities (including plenary events, a series of facilitated 2-day residential workshops and early career researcher summer schools; see Past Events within PoLnet1), as well as a small number of collaborative research programmes which provided the basis for the launch of a number of major research initiatives.
 
It was decided that the critical mass established from PoLNET1 should continue and the community should be taken forward by a second phase (PoLNET2) which EPSRC/BBSRC have now awarded funding.
 
PoLNET2 commenced in 2017 and is now being run from Durham University. It is envisaged that the second phase of this network will take the community on towards active research programmes, new topics, and continue to grow interdisciplinary connections in a sustainable way. PoLNet2 recognises that the environment is now different and ready for a new phase of activity. It constitutes an efficient way to realise the initial recommended actions of the ‘Roadmap for the Physics of Life’. There are 6 objectives and associated activities:

PoLNet2 Objectives

  1. Develop the research questions from PoLNet1 into active research programmes
  2. Continue to create a pipeline of new PoL research challenges
  3. Move to a sustainable UK PoL community by working very closely with British Biophysical Society (BBS) and the IoP  Biological Physics Group (BPG), and partner universities
  4. Grow the community of biologists who engage with the PoL community, its activities (the role of BBSRC is crucial here, as is the Crick Institute) and subsequent research programmes, working jointly with EPSRC and BBSRC and other funders to address wherever possible the highlighted topics of BBSRC with the collaborative science of EPSRC.
  5. Extend the Network by research partnerships with the relevant industrial sector (through a series of industry-oriented workshops) building on IoP and BBS links.
  6. Deliver a resource of pedagogical material for PoL, online and through graduate schools
In order to create a pipeline of new PoL research challenges, we are proposing a number of new topics for PoLNet2 workshops:

Proposed topics for new PoLNet2 workshops

Plant growth mechanics and signalling    
New horizons in bioimaging
The physics of epigenetics    
Bioenergy in processing of biological waste
Control of cell shape, size, in eukaryotes    
Evolution and statistical mechanics
Engineering biomimetic machines    
Phase-separation/transition in biological systems
Quantum biology     
Protocells
Biophysics of ageing    
Novel strategies in drug discovery and biologics
PoLNET2 will work closely alongside its partner institutions and universities:

Funded by:                                                                                                 Managed bY: