Quantitative Experiment Design

Definition

Experiments performed on biological systems obtain data and observations about the system. A well-designed experiment will generate new information that provides insight or resolves uncertainties associated with the biological system. Traditionally, scientists designed their experiments using their intuition and understanding of the system to test hypotheses and tease out components, interactions, networks, redundancies, and responses. For the most part, these experiments were conducted in a sequential manner: collecting data and making observations, analyzing the results, posing new hypotheses and questions, and addressing these hypotheses in the next experiment.

The complexity of even simple biological systems in terms of the sheer number of participating components, the extent of connections and interactions, nonlinearity and complexity of the systems as well as the built-in redundancy and ability of the systems to adapt has proven to be a daunting puzzle. Fortunately,...