遗传奠定了生物体基本表型的稳定性。遗传变异、表观遗传、微生物以及环境等因素与生物遗传的复杂互作决定了每个个体以及同一个体在生命过程不同阶段的表型差异，体现了生物学过程的强大作用和复杂性。对这些复杂性的解析、梳理、凝练，进而形成区分“自我”与“非我”的有辨识度认知构成了现代生物学的核心挑战。针对这一挑战以及未来科技综合交叉的发展态势与需求，本文提出表征生物学的概念，并定义为将复杂的生物学过程通过多维度研究和精确解析，以简约概念和特征性方式量化呈现的学科。

Heredity underlies the stability of an organism's fundamental phenotype. The complex interaction between genetic variation, epigenetic modification, microbial and environmental factors, and biological inheritance determines the phenotypic differences of each individual and those of the same individual at different life stages, reflecting the robustness and complexity of biological processes. The central challenge in modern biology is to distill these complexities into a discernible cognition distinguishing "self" from "non-self". As a response to this challenge and a growing demand for comprehensive intersection of future science and technology, we propose the concept of Flag Biology, which represents a novel discipline that, by employing the latest technology and comprehensive investigation, teases out complex biological processes into minimalist knowledges in a quantitative and characteristic way.