The Nigerian Anatomist in the New Millennium

Abstract

In this advent of the New Millennium, the discipline of anatomy has been said to face a crisis of identity and purpose. What is done in the laboratories has drifted far away from our teaching mission. It has further been posited that during the past century, important insights have been gained by reductionist approaches to biological problems. The emphasis has been on unitary events in biology such as single genes, disease genes, oncogenes etc. This unitary approach is ebbing and scientists are turning insights into the biology of systems. The new century approach seem to have began the journey of bringing the systems-based biologists to a common table. The new approach portends well for anatomists since anatomists have the intrinsic understanding of biological systems. Although the new approach places anatomists in a favourable position of a bedrock in the systems-based biological research, the truth however is that it has made the definition of the anatomist somehow confusing within the "ancient" understanding of the subject of anatomy. Hence the views of anatomists of the developing world like Nigeria seem to be opaque when perceived through the lens of our post-genomic world. In anticipation of exciting new inventions in the new millennium, the Nigerian anatomists must be poised to discard completely the old distinctions between pure and applied anatomy in one hand and structure and functional relationships on the other. They must brace up to become the principal researchers and teachers of the new biology. This will situate the Nigerian anatomist within the realms of his contemporaries in the world. Thus clearly underpinning the increasing parallel relationships between the systems of genes on chromosomes and structures defined by these genes. Then as the prime mission of the anatomist in the preclinical school, it is likely that the future mission will encompass the teaching of the biology of systems from a genomic perspective.