Diagram of the reductionist–synthetic strategy to characterize biological mechanisms.

<p>The boxes show the steps and research methods that contribute to understanding molecular mechanisms in cell biology. Arrows show the progression of the work starting with the definition of a biological question, followed by collecting an inventory of the relevant molecules and then three large areas of research: structural studies, cellular observations and biochemical characterization. When simulations of the hypothesis fail to account for observations in cells (bottom box), the investigator must reexamine their assumptions about the participating molecules (upward center arrow) and the participating reactions (right box) and the numerical parameters used in the simulations. Simulations and observations converge as understanding improves.