Emergentism as a default: Cancer as a problem of tissue organization

Journal of biosciences

Carlos Sonnenschein¹  Ana M soto1¹ 

[1] cancer is derived from a single somatic cell that has accumulated multiple DNA mutations;$$

关键词: Cell-cell interactions;    cell communication;    genetic determinism;    morphogenesis;    neoplasms;    organicism;    reductionism;    somatic mutation theory;    supracellular phenomena;    tissue organization;    tissue organization field theory;   

DOI  :  

来源: Indian Academy of Sciences

【 摘 要 】

During the last fifty years the dominant stance in experimental biology has been reductionism. For the most part, research programs were based on the notion that genes were in ‘the driver’s seat’ controlling the developmental program and determining normalcy and disease (genetic reductionism and genetic determinism). Philosophers were the first to realize that the belief that the Mendelian genes were reduced to DNA molecules was questionable. Soon after these pronouncements, experimental data confirmed their misgivings. The optimism of molecular biologists, fueled by early success in tackling relatively simple problems, has now been tempered by the difficulties found when attempting to understand complex biological problems.Here, we analyse experimental data that illustrate the shortcomings of this sort of reductionism. We also examine the prevailing paradigm in cancer research, the somatic mutation theory (SMT), the premises of which are: cancer is derived from a single somatic cell that has accumulated multiple DNA mutations;

【 授权许可】

Unknown