Basic Science

The basic sciences are defined as the scientific disciplines of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. They are called basic sciences because they provide a fundamental understanding of natural phenomena and the processes by which natural resources are transformed.

All scientific research conducted at medical schools and teaching hospitals ultimately aims to improve health and ability. Basic science research—often called fundamental or bench research—provides the foundation of knowledge for the applied science that follows. This type of research encompasses familiar scientific disciplines such as biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, and pharmacology, and their interplay, and involves laboratory studies with cell cultures, animal studies or physiological experiments. Basic science also increasingly extends to behavioral and social sciences as well, which have no less profound relevance for medicine and health.

Basic research can address clinical issues from a reductionist approach, including the discovery and analysis of single genes or genetic markers of diseases, or sequencing and manipulating genes. Typically, basic science research focuses on determining the causal mechanisms behind the functioning of the human body in health and illness, and utilizes hypothesis-driven experimental designs that can be specifically tested and revised. More recently, “systems biology” has focused on understanding how complex systems arise from elemental processes. Once these fundamental principles of the biologic processes are understood, these discoveries can be applied or translated into direct application to patient care.

In the absence of information and insights generated from basic research, it is difficult to envision how future advancement in treatment of disease and disability will occur; physicians would increasingly be in the position of mechanics who do not know how engines work, or programmers who do not understand how computers store and compile information. Basic research is also a source for new tools, models, and techniques (e.g., knockout mice, functional magnetic resonance imaging, etc.) that revolutionize research and development beyond the disciplines that give rise to them.