Biology is undergoing a major transition into Big Data, AI-driven Research, Mathematical and Computational Approaches, Systems Thinking and Multidisciplinary.
This transition concurrently requires a fundamental transition in teaching. I have therefore developed a unique approach to teaching Systems and Predictive Biology to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The key concept is that students from the first moment onwards should be immersed in actively modelling and exploring biological systems. All my teaching is therefore “flipped learning”, in which all material is provided beforehand through pre-recorded lectures, slides and reading material, while all interactions with students are in the form of active workshops, in which students themselves discover underlying mechanisms and principles (and often even more than we imagined!). Key elements are:
- In-depth teaching and demonstrations of leading edge computational and mathematical foundations for multi-level modelling of processes in biology.
- Transfer of knowledge on dealing with the complexity of biological processes; how to design and optimise models; how scientifically sound conclusions can be drawn, and the pitfalls involved.
- Compare and contrast the diverse model formalisms currently used for modelling, emphasising their relationship to the biological questions asked.
- Dissect biophysical processes at different levels of abstraction: from molecular, subcellular and cellular to multicellular, organism and ecosystem level, including how the different levels impact one another.
- Discover (through lectures, computational exercises and lab experiments) the diverse constraints involved in biological processes, such as biomechanics and information processing up to evolutionary mechanisms driving biological innovations.
- Explore how multiple mechanisms can act together to generate unexpected, biologically relevant behaviour.
- Challenge students to consider the nature of the research they are specifically interested in and the relationship between models and experiments within a well-formulated epistemological debate. Encourage students to leave their comfort zones.
- Stimulate students from diverse scientific backgrounds to interact and communicate across multifaceted barriers.
- Reveal how studying either animals or plants may require very different modelling strategies, but still can uncover common guiding principles.