Resynthesizing Biology: What Comes After Reductionism?

Complex biological systems cannot be understood through reductionism alone. For this reason, the promise of the century of biology remains largely unfulfilled, even as we are 25% through it. This opinion offers convergence biology as a unifying approach - one which merges multiple fields, data streams and AI to achieve predictive understanding. Myriad factors (institutional silos, norms, idiosyncratic incentives) limit progress and are obviously recalcitrant to change. Meeting the grand challenges of life will therefore require structural reforms and supportive policies to complete the ongoing turn toward larger questions and a truly synthetic understanding of life.