The formative years of my science education were characterized by a paradox: my mentors were generalists at a time before “Systems Biology” existed as a term, yet they carried out reductionist, hypothesis-driven research on various aspects of inflammation, which we all know to be central to the pathology of acute illness. Seven years ago I embarked on a road to help unravel this complexity, as part of a collaborative team at the University of Pittsburgh and in other institutions. Our work led us to form the Society for Complexity in Acute Illness (SCAI), and I can say with much pride and joy that this process has resulted in a groundswell of enthusiasm, creative energy, and novel insights. As the first SCAI Secretary and ICCAI co-organizer, I helped move us along the first, necessary steps as scientific society.

However, I feel that SCAI is at a crossroads.

We have achieved sufficient success to stand on our own as a scientific society, but still require vigorous and energetic leadership in order to advance the goal of bringing complex systems methods to the field of acute illness. As President of SCAI, I will advocate for a clear set of mandates to be pursued by the Society during the coming three years. These goals would be solicited from the membership, since the priorities are different in the different countries in which we live. My own priority is the goal of expanding the nascent work done on Translational Systems Biology in acute illness. Simply stated, Translational Systems Biology is a framework in which translational rather than basic insights are primary, mathematical models are designed to facilitate in silico

clinical trials, simulations are appropriate for in vivo validation, and mechanistic simulations of whole-organism responses guide “-omics” studies. I will work with the SCAI Officers to expand the programmatic reach of SCAI, to increase the visibility of SCAI in the academic, commercial, and government arenas, and to increase our funding base in order to assure our long-term future.

The various analytical techniques used to explain the many supposed mediators in inflammatory diseases have outpaced the integrative approaches that simplify this complexity for the physiologist and the clinician. There is a strong need for synthesis research. The part is never the whole, and it is impossible to understand the whole through limited dissections of its parts. Our research focus must be on the interactions between the constituents of the system rather than only describing isolated aspects of the disease process. Techniques of non-linear systems theory are suitable tools for the analysis of complex and dynamic diseases like SIRS and sepsis. Although professional synthesis research is a serious challenge we have made significant progress in the recent years by members of this society.

Future breakthroughs, however, can only be expected if we overcome language problems between disciplines that includes bioscientists, mathematicians , computer scientists and clinicians.

I have been one of the founding members of SCAI(first president) and organized several international workshops and the International Shock congress of the IFSS in 2008 in Cologne, Germany, and hope now to continue to serve this organization and further its development as vice president. My special focus will be to attract European research groups for our society.

One of the main strengths of SCAI is its focus on bringing together diverse researchers who are interested in forging cross-disciplinary collaborations that aim to make progress in translational medicine.

It provides an important platform through its yearly meeting (ICCAI) for these researchers (clinicians, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists) to connect and share new insights as well as current and ongoing difficulties faced by critical care givers.

I have been a regular attendee of these meetings since its inception and of the SCAI business meetings.

Recently, I was elected as secretary of the board of directors where I hope to continue representing junior colleagues who are doing research in this area and be able

to serve the SCAI officers in their goal to strengthen and grow this vital community that has emerged.

My goal is to support SCAI and its members in helping develop a truly interdiscliplinary way of researching and then using complex systems analysis, in silico modeling, and other methodologies to better understand and treat critically ill and injured patients. In over 25 years in critical care, I have found that SCAI provides a unique environment in which a diverse group of scientists can strive to understand the pathophysiology of critical illness and injury at multiple levels, from the micro- to the macro-, by communicating with one another and applying knowledge from engineering, physics, mathematics, systems science and other fields to medicine. I look forward to serving the Society.