New Light on Ayurvedic Biology: Protein Bioconformatics Applied to the Integrated Understanding of Ayurveda and Modern Scientific Medicine

Modern scientific medicine and Ayurveda are distinct traditions that have shared histories, and the shared intentions of understanding human life and applying this understanding to the maintenance of health and treatment of disease. Each tradition differs in philosophy, emphasis, conceptualization and approach. Ayurveda, very generally, is more experiential, inductive, holistic, focused on disease prevention, and concerned with the whole. Modern scientific medicine is more experimental, deductive, reductionist, focused on disease treatment, and concerned with the parts. Many attempts have been made to integrate aspects of Ayurveda with aspects of modern scientific medicine and to conceptualize this integration, with varying degrees of success. Addressing integration at the foundational levels of epistemology, philosophy and logic may produce the most useful results. Specifically, approaches to modern science that are consistent with the core principles of Ayurveda, particularly inductive learning, whole systems inquiry and respect for individual variation may be especially suitable for effective integration. Protein bioconformatics, a new paradigm in modern science, is a special type of non-covalent proteomics focused on functional differences in protein folding states and assembly of different proteins into multi-protein complexes, endowing them with functional and biological regulatory distinction. While squarely rooted in generally accepted principles of protein biochemistry, protein bioconformatics is in many ways epistemologically and philosophically aligned with core principles of Ayurveda, making it unusually well-suited for integration with Ayurveda. In this paper, protein bioconformatic science is applied to the Ayurvedic concepts of Vata Dosha, Samprapti, and individual variation, and to the pathologies of Rabies/Alarkavisha and Cancer/Arbuda, providing specific examples of conceptual and philosophical integration. The protein bioconformatic paradigm is shown to be a valuable approach for integrating modern science and Ayurveda, with potential benefit for both modern scientific medicine and Ayurveda.