Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: We are fortunate to be working in science in the 21st century, when advances in technology and communication allow us to apply multiple disciplines to our research in a way never before possible. Addressing a scientific question often requires us to straddle a number of research areas and sometimes to reach far into distant fields. The multidisciplinary nature of modern science is also multidimensional. First, we draw from different research fields. The structural biologist applies biochemistry and cell biology to demonstrate the functional implications of the newly solved structure, the medicinal chemist pushes beyond synthesis of a new compound or derivative to pursue preclinical evaluation, and the biochemist draws on cell biological and genetic models to demonstrate the significance of a finding. Similarly, the information gleaned from clinical samples can be vastly increased by genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic analyses, especially when complemented by similar analyses of the relevant cultured cells and animal models. Further, the integrated nature of preclinical testing now allows one to rapidly assess a drug’s effect on the targeted (and also non-targeted) tissues as well as its pharmacokinetics when administered alone and as part of combination therapy. In another dimension, we have come to realize that we can no longer restrict our analyses to a specific cell type. Certainly, we must demonstrate the reproducibility (or not) of our finding in a number of representative cells. But we are increasingly aware of the importance of considering the neighboring cell types and tissues that make up the complex microenvironment of the cell being studied. Be it a melanocyte, keratinocyte, fibroblast, or epithelial cell, we face the growing need to understand the contribution of adjacent cells, growth factors, chemokines and immune components cells to tumor development. Other examples are the importance of keratinocytes to melanocyte function, how the location of a stem cell within a tissue can determine its function, and the role of innate immune components in maintaining or perturbing tissue homeostasis. The spatio-physical constraints of the host tissue are also important because a cell’s physiology is influenced not only by its neighboring cells but also by its relative position in the tissue. For instance, oxygen levels vary at different layers within the same tissue and can thus result in a hypoxic microenvironment. Cells growing in 20%, 3%, or 1% oxygen have vastly different transcriptional programs, controlled by key components of the hypoxic response mechanism. Indeed, cell fate determination is different at each of these oxygen concentrations. For those of us working in the field of pigment and melanoma research, the boundaries between the two fields have largely faded. The function of pigmentation genes directly relates to the development of melanoma, and conversely, genes that appear to be involved in promoting or suppressing melanoma also relate to pigmentation. This is illustrated by the large number of studies concerning the master regulator of melanocyte biogenesis, MITF, which plays an important and increasingly appreciated role in melanocyte transformation and melanomagenesis. So, how do we integrate other disciplines into our work to make better sense of our research findings? First, we must ensure that the education of future scientists is sufficiently comprehensive that they have a ‘global’ understanding of the problem at hand, allowing them to consider the solution in multiple dimensions. This could be addressed by integrating lighter versions of medical school genetics, pathology, physiology, and immunology courses into graduate school curricula and postdoctoral training programs. Second, for those of us who are past that stage in our career, we must self-educate and integrate new disciplines into our work, often by forming collaborations. A paper with numerous authors is often a clue that the study crosses many scientific disciplines, with each author contributing their specific expertise. Collaboration across disciplines is inevitable—indeed desirable—and will allow us to better address the problems we study from the drawing board (grant applications), through the experimental phase (publications), to the practical outcome (clinical implications). Will future cross-discipline collaborations allow us to develop models that could recapitulate the complex physiology of tissues and their microenvironments? Likely so, when sufficient information has been gathered from relevant biological systems to build mathematical models that allow a system-level approach (systems biology). One can imagine the outcomes of such powerful modeling, from solving a biological question to assessing therapeutic modalities. Pigment Cell Melanoma Research has evolved to provide a platform for the integrated disciplines that are relevant to understanding the biology of the pigment cell and the transformation of melanocytes. Genomics, metabolomics, and systems biology are among the more recent disciplines being integrated into pigment and melanoma research, while advanced genetic and immunological models are being developed and more complex cell cultures tested. We are fortunate to live in a super-tech era; all we need is to pick up the tool of our liking from this super toy store and play.
Source: Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research
Author: Ze’ev Ronai
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1984086323