doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.108.180828
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.
Editorials |
Nature Versus Nurture in Cardiac Conduction
Toward Integrative Paradigm of Cardiac Tissue Engineering
From the Washington University in Saint Louis, Mo.
Correspondence to Professor Igor R. Efimov, Washington University, Biomedical Engineering, Campus Box 1097, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899. E-mail igor@wustl.edu
See related article, pages 167–176
Key Words: conduction • connexin43 • stem cell plasticity • stem cells • tissue culture • tissue engineering
An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract. |
"Biology today is at a crossroads. The molecular paradigm, which so successfully guided the discipline throughout most of the 20th century, is no longer a reliable guide. Its vision of biology now realized, the molecular paradigm has run its course. Biology, therefore, has a choice to make, between the comfortable path of continuing to follow molecular biology’s lead or the more invigorating one of seeking a new and inspiring vision of the living world, one that addresses the major problems in biology that 20th century biology, molecular biology, could not handle and, so, avoided."1— —Carl R. Woese
Circulation research, as many other branches of biomedical science, has motivated many young investigators by the promise of delivering to society therapies against deadly diseases. As with all branches of the natural sciences, circulation research follows periodic changes in overarching methodological approaches that dominate the field for several decades. The two extremes of this research pendulum are the reductionist and the integrative approaches to the cardiovascular system. Five years ago, Eugene Braunwald reflected on the 50th anniversary of the journal Circulation Research, whose inaugural Editor in Chief was Carl J. Wiggers.2 Braunwald recalled a dominance of the reductionist approach that was personified by the leading physiologist of the beginning of the 20th century, Ernest H. Starling, followed by the integrative approach under the leadership of Carl J. Wiggers. "As cardiovascular research has unfolded in the 50 years of Circulation Research, the pendulum between the reductionist and holistic approaches has swung
Related Article:
Circ. Res. 2008 103: 167-176.