The Human Frontier Science Program, which recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding, has proven to be a unique and extremely valuable program working to support international collaborations at the frontiers of molecular biology and neuroscience. As we look forward in the decade ahead to the enormous promise of these disciplines in furthering biological and biomedical understanding, and bettering the condition of humankind, it is very important that the program be sustained and further developed in order to take full advantage of the scientific opportunities now opening up all around us.
Molecular biology is in the midst of a fundamental transformation.
The human genome project, and genome sequencing of an increasing number of model organisms, human pathogens and agriculturally valuable plants, combined with DNA microarray and high-throughput proteomics technologies and initiatives, are changing the way biologists look at the molecular components of the living world. Increasingly, molecular biologists will move from the study of one or a few molecules in isolation, to the exploration of complex molecular, cellular and organismic systems at many complementary levels of resolution. It is clear that the dictionaries of this new language will draw from disciplines that run the entire gamut of the natural sciences, relying on new and sophisticated mathematical and computational techniques, and that a new generation of young scientific talent from across the world will be needed to become this language's first native speakers. HFSP aims to be at the forefront of promoting the development of this new interdisciplinary language of living systems. With its unique international scope, HFSP will continue to play a leading role in promoting scientific networks and collaborations across international borders, in both developed and developing nations.