Heredity in the Postgenomic Era
June 19–20, 2014
In recent decades, especially since the 2001 sequencing of the human genome, biology has been in the genomic era. This genomic age is now dominating much of biological thinking. It has spawned new post-genomic “omic” fields (such as proteomics, metabolomics, as well as systems biology) which are characterized by collection of vast data sets, of which analysis and interpretation remain formidable challenges. Moreover, these genomic and postgenomic fields challenge much of the conceptual framework of biology inherited from the twentieth century, especially with respect to what was assumed about the nature of heredity and the role it plays at other levels of biology and culture.
The aim of this Forum is to explore the scientific and philosophical implications of these postgenomic disciplines on studies of heredity, including genetics, genomics, and evolution. This Fellows’ Forum will bring together a group of scholars bridging biology, history, and philosophy, in two workshops separated by a year. The joint work of the Forum will both attempt to clarify what recent genomic era developments in biology entail for the meaning of heredity and, equally importantly, identify problems that merit further interpretive work. Below, we present six key topic areas for the Forum.
Convener
Contact
Participants
Felix
Breden
Fellow
2013/2014
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby
John
Dupré
University of Exeter
Thomas
Flatt
Fellow
2011/2012
Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien
Manfred D.
Laubichler
Fellow
2009/2010
Arizona State University, Tempe
Ulrich
Stegmann
University of Aberdeen
Karola
Stotz
Macquarie University, North Ryde