The biological, biographical, and biospheric dimensions of puberty onset: Using Bio3Science to frame transdisciplinary health research on puberty

Abstract

This paper uses the case of puberty to characterize a new health science framework called Bio3Science and to provide an example of how trending research on biosocial mechanisms can be put to use to bridge siloed disciplines as well as the translational gap. Examined as an intricate, open-ended problem of scientific understanding, puberty offers a window to examine how three dimensions of human life – biology, biography, and biosphere – can be understood to shape human health and disease. Methods: Using the Bio3Science framework, a biosocial model of puberty was developed and critiqued by an interdisciplinary group of health science and social science researchers in a design studio setting. Results: The design and critique process resulted in a model and new conceptual framework that depicts puberty as a highly variable life experience that integrates multiple dense interactions and context-specific responses; within this model, the gene regulatory network (GRN) transformed from a biological to a biosocial mechanism, with conceptual and concrete applications. Conclusions: By providing a new, generalizable framework for understanding the integration of biology, biography, and biosphere in health research, opportunities emerge for more interdisciplinary work puberty, but also and more broadly, for more collaborative, inter-epistemological health research through the Bio3Science framework.