THE POSTGENOMIC ERA or Why We Need 300 000 Mice Strains

М.P. Моshkin

There is no need to prove that the question on how a living organism functions is topical for each of us. The only problem is to choose an adequate “tool” for knowledge acquisition. As a rule, research into any biological system be it a cell, individual, or biocenosis commences from a “morphological” structural description. However, though this stage is necessary, it alone is insufficient for comprehending the functioning mechanisms of a studied system.
A brilliant illustration of how extremely erroneous can be speculations based on only structure descriptions is the concepts of ancient scientists about the brain function. Aristotle, as well as his colleagues, regarded this “materials substrate” of the cognitive functions as the depository for water and mucus (serving to cool the blood) and for sperm disposed from the brain via the veins around ears.
The modern methodological foundations for studying functions were established as early as the 17th century by William Harvey, an English physician, who was among the first to purposefully manipulate with body structures to understand their mission. Even today, several hundred years after, this approach is still topical: directed impacts on living systems remain the main approach to the experimental study of the mechanisms involved in their function. Only the scale has changed as the ever more frequently used objects of manipulation are, on the one hand, large ecosystem-level bodies (for example, elements of landscapes) and, on the other hand, minute structures of living organisms (cells, cellular organelles, and organic molecules)

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