Future medicine shaped by an interdisciplinary new biology

Abstract

The projected effects of the new biology on future medicine are described. The new biology is essentially the result of shifts in the way biological research has progressed over the past few years, mainly through the involvement of physical scientists and engineers in biological thinking and research with the establishment of new teams and task forces to address the new challenges in biology. Their contributions go well beyond the historical contributions of mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering to medical practice that were largely equipment oriented. Over the next generation, the entire fabric of the biosciences will change as research barriers between disciplines diminish and eventually cease to exist. The resulting effects are starting to be noticed in front-line medicine and the prospects for the future are immense and potentially society changing. The most likely disciplines to have early effects are outlined and form the main thrust of this paper, with speculation about other disciplines and emphasis that although physics-based and engineering-based biology will change future medicine, the physical sciences and engineering will also be changed by these developments. Essentially, physics is being redefined by the need to accommodate these new views of what constitutes biological systems and how they function.