演讲人: Lajos P Balogh, Ph.D.  （中国科学院外国专家特聘研究员）
            AA Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology, North Andover, Massachusetts 01845, USA
            Executive Editor, Manuscript Clinic
题   目: The structure of complexity: scale-free networks, emergence, HIV, and cancer
时   间: 2016年4月6日 (星期三), 上午10:00
地   点: 中科院高能物理研究所，主楼C209会议室
主持人: 孙宝云 研究员

报告摘要:
The hierarchy of knowledge is often grounded in hearsay and accidental observations. Scientific data are usually acquired under controlled conditions, but without detecting patterns and understanding relations we cannot transform raw data to information then to knowledge. Understanding the principles enables us to simplify complexity.

Systems with complex topology may simply be described as nodes, connections, and flow of information between the nodes. Dynamics of such a system are determined by the actual topology and by the nature of information exchange (electrical signals, molecule, or particle transfer, etc.) Connectivities may follow various patterns, which distribution patterns result in properties that the large networks share. Examples are genetic networks, human relations, transportation (roads, air) systems, the internet, etc. Identifying common properties of these networks helps us to understand their characteristic and shared features. For example, in a disease network, diseases are connected if they have a common genetic or functional origin. Understanding the functionally of relevant interactions in human disease networks leads to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of human diseases. Another example is the social network of human-to-human interactions, which plays a central role in the spread of communicable diseases. The notion of "emergence" is becoming increasingly important in a variety of disciplines, especially in cross-disciplinary investigations, like nanomedicine.  Complex adaptive systems, punctuated equilibrium, and symmetry breaking are all examples of emergent phenomena. Simple interactions at one systemic level may produce new, and often surprising outcome at the next higher level when emergence sets in. Then, the result goes beyond the particulars of the individual subsystems, and the whole becomes different than simply the sum of its parts.

The human body is a unique example of the hierarchy of different sub-systemic networks connected by emergence. Understanding of the systemic view of our body has numerous important consequences, which will be specified in this presentation looking at the challenges of two systemic diseases, HIV and cancer. To successfully conquer HIV and cancer, we have to consider their behavior as dynamic systems as well as acknowledge and address the existence of systemic properties with all consequences in our approach. Once we adapt this view, it will be clear that none of the subsystems alone is able to solve the problems of the whole.