In our 2008 "Special Feature: Opportunities in Synthetic Biology," we offered a snapshot of the nascent field of synthetic biology, looking at what the field encompasses, the skills it requires, and where the jobs and training opportunities are.
There is some disagreement with use of the term "medical" in reference to the field as "medical informatics" because the field encompasses all of healthcare, public health and biomedicine [ 3].
The importance of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR + A) has been increasingly recognised over the last decade [ 1– 5] (for this paper, we use the acronym HPSR + A to include analysis (+A) in recognition that the field encompasses various forms of analysis undertaken by different actors).
A survey is given on two decades of developments in the field, encompassing an increase in computing power by four orders of magnitude.
But what Al-Shahrour herself sees as her most important asset is her broad view of the field, encompassing the development of computer tools, databases, and computational methodologies and their use to study genes, cell lines, and patients.
This field, which encompasses functional genomics, structural genomics, transcriptomics, pharmacogenomics, proteomics and metabolomics, allows for a systems-wide approach to biological studies.
The field encompasses the entire area of career development.
"Our field encompasses genetics all the way to the study of societies.
The field encompasses emerging technologies that enable more efficient and sustainable means to generate, store and distribute power.
The life sciences field encompasses functional foods, drug development, diagnostics, biomaterials, bioinformatics, medical design, and medical technology.
