Mission Statement
The first stage of the genomics revolution began in 1991 with the initiation of the Human Genome Project. As we anticipate the conclusion of this first stage, biologists are faced with the daunting task of assigning function to the newly identified genes. The post-sequencing era of biology will be driven by a vast expansion of the technology for collecting information on the function of genes and how they are regulated at various stages in their life cycle.

Being able to observe what a complicated system does, even in great detail, does not necessarily convey insight into how it functions or allow one to predict how it will respond to altered conditions. Organisms are networks of genes, which make networks of proteins, which regulate genes, and so on ad infinitum. We currently understand very little about the functioning of the simplest regulatory networks. A conceptual framework for dealing with large networks does not exist. New technologies to study integrative genomics will be required to identify biological networks. The ultimate goal is to deconvolute such networks and to define them precisely in both qualitative and quantitative terms. The focus of the research park is to extract from these enormous amounts of data an understanding of how biological systems organize and integrate complex processes. This understanding will extend our reach over the forces of nature as no other technology in history.

While we cannot predict the best direction to take to develop the new science of integrative biology, the current overriding focus is on the analysis of biological networks. The striking phenomena of life result from the dynamics of large networks. Even within a single-celled organism, networks of biochemical reactions regulate the state of the cell and its response to signals from outside. During the development of a complex multicellular organism, networks of cells exchange chemical signals, which in turn activate networks of reactions within each cell. In the brain, our perceptions, thoughts and actions are produced by electrical and chemical signals in networks of neurons, each connected to thousands of others. Biologists have been successful in the past several decades in understanding the structure of these networks, particularly through the use of molecular genetic tools. However, to date, science has not been able to obtain a fundamental understanding of how these networks work. This is the challenge towards which the research at SUPERNATURAL® will be directed.