Modern biology is advancing rapidly. Cutting-edge experimental techniques allow us to comprehensively analyze the macromolecules that compose each living cell:
Meanwhile, working within the paradigm of systems biology, theoretical and experimental biologists are working to understand the cell as an integrated system.
Until now, however, most effort within systems biology has focused on networks of molecules: Gene X expresses RNA Y, which makes protein Z, which synthesizes carbohydrate W...
But that’s not how cells really work. If we consider only molecular networks, we miss a critical level of organization: the organelles.
Organelles are functional organizations of macromolecules. Organellar proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates are synthesized, regulated, and localized in a coordinated manner in order to accomplish essential cellular functions. The major organelles include:
Just as genes and proteins interact, organelles themselves communicate with one another, in a system we think of as the organelle network.
In order to understand this communication, our COE has combined three major fields into an interdisciplinary research program:
Together, our interdisciplinary program will lead to the development of a new field of medicine: Organelle Network Medicine.