As a cell and molecular biologist, I’ve worked with biological systems ranging from molecular to macro-ecological in scale. My current research quantifies genetic expression in biological models for cancer, DNA damage, tissue regeneration, and host-pathogen interactions. Previously, I modeled invertebrate populations and water quality data in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta worked as an Environmental Scientist for the California Department of Water Resources. I’ve even worked with rare volcanic and deep-sea vent samples to search for rare microbial extremophiles and XNA molecules. My projects range from exploring the diversity of species in an environment to quantifying genes expressed in a disease model. I’ll be honest, at times it is hard to find cohesion between my science ventures. Centrally, my work seeks to improve the health of earth’s systems through the discovery of unifying principles.
Understanding systems is empowering
I’m using this blog to build that unification. I want to explore different systems with you to make these concepts relatable at a personal level. My goal is to review and summarize difficult scientific concepts for personal use. I truly believe that better understanding our systems at every level can bring balance to our personal lives. When we understand the importance of diversity in our microbiomes we can justify the need, to ourselves, for balanced diets. With an understanding of how cancer forms in a system we can work to balance our own lifestyle factors for better prevention. Understanding our own systems is empowering. It helps us make better decisions for our sake and for the greater good of society and our planet.
Systems are dynamic
People often want to categorize interactions as “good and bad” and I want to move us past that mindset. There’s a drive to find the “good” gut bacteria, the “bad” genes causing disease, the “beneficial” species in an environment. When humans decide what is good and bad and implement that in an environment, we introduce our own biases into a system. We seem to think that we can outmaneuver our environments and engineer them to perfection. A great example of this happened when Hawaiian plantation owners introduced mongooses to manage pests. The introduced mongoose became a dominant invasive species and devastated the diversity of birds and rodents, threatening native species to the islands. I think we need to progress our thinking and collective decision-making. We as a society should move forward from categorizing the “good and bad” aspects of an interaction. We can simply seek understand an interaction relative to a molecule/species/individual. Systems are dynamic. Through better understanding of our systems we can appreciate the push-and-pull of a dynamic system and make informed decisions for ourselves and our communities.
Melanie LeGro 