On Immunologists and Microbiologists: Ground Zero in the Battle for Interdisciplinary Knowledge

ABSTRACT The individual disciplines of microbiology and immunology are exploding with new information necessary for understanding host-pathogen relationships, infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmunity. Because of overlapping scientific interests, immunologists and microbiologists often share com...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Christine A. Biron, Arturo Casadevall
Format: article
Langue:EN
Publié: American Society for Microbiology 2010
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://doaj.org/article/7f01f91f0a3f4cc08d5362e8dc825a39
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
Description
Résumé:ABSTRACT The individual disciplines of microbiology and immunology are exploding with new information necessary for understanding host-pathogen relationships, infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmunity. Because of overlapping scientific interests, immunologists and microbiologists often share common academic affiliations. The coexistence is uneasy. Significant problems arise because the groups have evolved different intellectual traditions. Pressures are intensified by sporadic changes in perceptions of their relative worth. As the mixing of microbiologists and immunologists can be likened to ground zero in the fight for interdisciplinary knowledge, it is useful, at this time of escalating data acquisition and growing appreciation for multidisciplinary research, to examine their histories, the challenges to amalgamation, and the advantages of their association for the advancement of knowledge and the delivery of protection against disease. The exploration supports a recommitment to integration of the disciplines and a proposal to facilitate this by inclusion of expertise bridging the areas.