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Interview with Athel Cornish-Bowden Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Newsletter 2, No. 1 p. 4 (2007) feature technology in the news interview Interview with Athel Cornish-Bowden Athel Cornish-Bowden is Directeur de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Marseilles, France. Dr. Cornish-Bowden obtained his MA, DPhil and DSc from Oxford University. He is the author of Fundamentals of Enzyme Kinetics and The Pursuit of Perfection “I think there was a widespread belief in the 1990s that once the human and other genomes became known a broad understanding of the organization of living organisms would just emerge from the mountain of data. This didn’t happen, of course.” Can you briefly describe your career genomes became known a broad un- been Henrik Kacser. He is unfortunately to date? What are your main research derstanding of the organization of living no longer with us, and the other three interests? I obtained my doctorate at organisms would just emerge from the that I have mentioned have not been Oxford with Jeremy Knowles, ostensi- mountain of data. This didn’t happen, of primarily interested in systems. Almost bly in organic chemistry but in practice course, and people committed to a sys- everything I have written in the past 20 in enzyme chemistry. I then spent three temic view of systems never expected years has been influenced by discus- post-doctoral years with Daniel Kosh- it to happen, so the failure of such an sions with María Luz Cárdenas and Jan- land at Berkeley, where I developed an understanding just to “emerge” was Hendrik Hofmeyr. In the past few years interest in the quaternary structure of certainly one of the driving forces for I have been increasingly attracted by the proteins and its relevance to enzyme the explosive growth of systems biol- ideas of Robert Rosen, which are also regulation. This led naturally to an in- ogy. The term appeared in the scientific systemic, but at a much more funda- terest in the principal mechanisms of literature in 1998, but was used in fewer mental level than Kacser’s. enzyme regulation, cooperativity and al- than 20 papers published before 2000, losteric inhibition. Subsequently I spent whereas it occurs in about two papers What advice would you give to a student 16 years at Birmingham, where I worked each day in 2007. looking to study biological systems? It on enzyme kinetics and regulation, es- would depend on whether the student pecially in relation to mammalian hexo- Could you give an example of the limita- wanted to make a successful career or kinases. Since moving to Marseilles 20 tions of a genome sequencing approach? wanted to make a real contribution to years ago I have become interested in Treponema pallidum, the spirochete re- biological understanding; if the latter, the kinetics of multi-enzyme systems. sponsible for syphilis, now has a com- then it would be essential to search pletely known genome, but not much for general principles, and to regard Systems biology has been described by more is known about its biochemistry accumulating detailed information as some as the United Nations of the bio- than was known before its genome was a step towards that end and not as an logical sciences, which hints at its trans- sequenced. In the absence of any infor- end in itself. Existing methods are quite disciplinary nature. What is your work- mation about the kinetic and regulatory effective at making people computer- ing definition for this type of biology? properties of its enzymes the best we literate; the deficiencies are more on In an ideal world systems biology would can do is use sophisticated stoichiomet- the side of biological literacy. There has be an approach to biochemistry built on ric analysis, such as the methods being always been a widespread feeling that a recognition that to understand sys- developed by Stefan Schuster, for exam- biology is an “easy” subject compared, tems one must study them as systems ple, to deduce from the genome some say, with physics, but this is only true if and not as collections of components. of its similarities with Escherichia coli. we just regard it as no more than a vast In practice, systems biology seems to That is a step, certainly, but not really accumulation of facts. In reality biology differ from traditional biochemistry and what we want to know, which is how it needs not just knowledge of a long list molecular biology chiefly in relation to differs from Escherichia coli, which does of facts, but a broad understanding of the much larger body of facts that it not cause syphilis. Understanding syphi- how they are related. This is especially tries to handle, but true systemic atti- lis will require much more than just ge- important now, at a time when we tudes are not usually to the forefront. nome information, and this will include are witnessing an alarming growth of Whatever systems biology is, it is a de- a great deal of kinetic and regulatory pseudobiology, a time when creationism, velopment of biochemistry, not of, say, information. and the supposedly scientific version zoology, botany, taxonomy, etc., or even known as intelligent design, threatens microbiology. Who has had the greatest impact on biology teaching throughout the world, your career to date? The people who no longer just in the United States. You have been quoted as saying that taught me chemistry at Oxford, es- “systems biology in current practice is pecially R. J. P. Williams and Jeremy not easy to distinguish from old-style Knowles, had a great impact on my reductionist biochemistry applied on way of thinking about it, as did Daniel an ever-larger scale.” Is systems biol- Koshland a little later; he in particular Readers interested in more details are ogy a by-product of our inability to encouraged me not to be frightened of encouraged to consult the following make sense of large data sets? I think building a career on a largely theoretical article: “Putting the systems back into there was a widespread belief in the foundation. In the second half of my ca- systems biology,” Perspectives in Biology 1990s that once the human and other reer the greatest influence has certainly and Medicine 49.4 (2006) 475-489. 4.
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