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Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on August 30, 2007
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2007 47(4):506-509; doi:10.1093/icb/icm033
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Why respiratory biology? The meaning and significance of respiration and its integrative study

Steven F. Perry1,* and Warren W. Burggren{dagger}
*Institut für Zoologie, Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115 Bonn, Germany; {dagger}Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton TX, USA

Correspondence: 1E-mail: perry{at}uni-bonn.de

Traditionally the process of respiration is divided into three phases: (1) cellular respiration, (2) transport of respiratory gases and (3) ventilation of the gas exchange organs (breathing). Thereby organisms assimilate chemical energy from the environment, and within their cells transfer it from molecule to molecule in a stepwise fashion. Although studied separately, these phases represent a continuum and cellular respiration in all life forms has much in common. Ironically, these respiratory foci have been artificially delineated by their own practitioners, who tend to publish in their own journals, and attend their own conferences. The goal of modern respiratory biology should be to understand biological connectivity and complexity by viewing an organism as a series of interconnecting systems from molecule to ecosystem. The future of science in general, and biology in particular, lies in disciplinary networking: combining the results of traditional disciplines to better understand the whole. Because of its universality, Respiratory Biology can best provide this bridge and improve interdisciplinary studies in biology generally. To this end, the First International Congress of Respiratory Biology was held from August 14 to 16, 2006, at Bonn, Germany. As evident from the success of this inaugural meeting, these are exciting times for Respiratory Biology. The explosion of "X-omics" and systems biology, the powerful genetic approaches to disease treatment, and the long-standing and newly emerging questions in evolutionary biology and ecology; all portend a continuing role of respiratory biology as a key integrative discipline.

This paper summarizes one of the 22 symposia that constituted the "First International Congress of Respiratory Biology" held August 14–16, 2006, in Bonn, Germany.


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