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Sunday, March 6, 2011

MIT Report Calls for More Interdisciplinary Research

The ongoing merger of life, physical, and engineering sciences could revolutionize biomedicine, MIT researchers claim in a new white paper. The report authors call this fusing of disciplines convergence.

Successful examples of convergence in the fields of medicine, engineering, and computer science include brain grafts for treating cerebral disorders and injury, computational biology for immune response, and imaging technology to prevent blindness.

The report says that, in order for convergence to meet its fullest potential, the National Institutes of Health should encourage investigation that crosses research disciplines. The agency should also reform the peer-review process for interdisciplinary grants, the researchers contend.


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Publisher and/or Author and/or Editor:__Andres Agostini ─ @Futuretronium at Twitter! Futuretronium Book at http://3.ly/rECc