Multicellularity exists in all domains of life, spanning from microbial biofilms to plans and metazoans. Clearly multicellularity offers many advantages (increase in size, division of labor, increased complexity), but also comes with a number of challenges (control and coordination of cells, availability of nutrients and signaling molecules,…).
A number of publications have looked at the solutions found by living organisms to counter the problems of multicellularity. Practically all of those studies have taken a cell-center point of view in their analysis. The authors of this article argue that seeing cells as the only actors in multicellularity has led to the omission of some fundamental features. In order to fully understand multicellular forms of life, the authors claim that the intercellular space has to be taken into account. By this they mean not only considering the space in which cells operate, and how they specify it, but also how the organization of space, in turn, has a direct influence on cell fate and behavior. Read more here.
For decades cancer research had focused exclusively on the tumor. Later the vision was broadend to the tumor microenvironment (TME). Today five researchers – both philosophers and scientists – call for a look beyond the tumor microenvironment. In the minireview they show the crucial importance of the tumor organismal environment (TOE).
Find the full article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijc.32343
The availability of big data has the potential to transform many areas of the life sciences and usher in new ways of doing research. Sabina Leonelli argues that big data biology also raises fundamental questions in the philosophy of science: for example, what is a good dataset, and how can reliable knowledge be extracted from big data? Collaborations between biologists, data scientists and philosophers of science will help us to answer these and other questions. Read more here.
What do philosophers say about immunology, and to what extent can this be useful to immunologists? Immunology and philosophy have a rich history of dialogue. Immunologists have long been influenced by ideas from philosophy, notably the concept of 'self', and many philosophers have explored the conceptual, theoretical and methodological foundations of immunology. This article discusses two aspects of this dialogue: biological individuality and immunogenicity. Read more here.
Regeneration occurs at many different levels in nature, from individual organisms (notably earthworms and hydra), through communities of microbes, to ecosystems such as forests. Researchers in the life sciences and the history and philosophy of science are collaborating to explore how the processes of repair and recovery observed at these different scales are related. Read more here.
The characteristic properties of stem cells – notably their ability to self-renew and to differentiate – have meant that they have traditionally been viewed as distinct from most other types of cells. However, recent research has blurred the line between stem cells and other cells by showing that the former display a range of behaviors in different tissues and at different stages of development. The authors use the tools of metaphysics to describe a classification scheme for stem cells, and to highlight what their inherent diversity means for cancer treatment. Read more here.
The latest edition of PNAS features an article co-written by philosophers and scientist pleading for a closer collaboration between their respective disciplines. The article entitled "Why science needs philosophy" argues that despite tight historical links between science and philosophy, present-day scientists often perceive philosophy as completely different from, and even antagonistic to, science. However philosophy can have an important and productive impact on science.
The authors give three examples taken from various fields of the contemporary life sciences. Each bears on cutting-edge scientific research, and each has been explicitly acknowledged by practicing researchers as a useful contribution to science. From there the authors develop in what forms philosphy can help advance science. Read the full article here.
The journal Biology & Philosophy has published a special issue on the philosophy of CRISPR-Cas. Thomas Pradeu has written the introduction and together with Jean-François Moreau he presents a commentary to Eugene Koonin's target paper.
In the commentary Pradeu and Moreau defend an extended view of CRISPR-Cas immunity by arguing that CRISPR-Cas includes, but cannot be reduced to, defence against nonself. CRISPR-Cas systems can target endogenous elements (for example in DNA repair) and tolerate exogenous elements (for example some phages). They conclude that the vocabulary of “defence” and “nonself” might be misleading when describing CRISPR-Cas systems (PDF of final draft).
A growing amount of evidences indicates that inflammaging – the chronic, low grade inflammation state characteristic of the elderly – is the result of genetic as well as environmental or stochastic factors.
In their latest review Christine Nadini, Jean-François Moreau, Noémie Gensous, Francesco Ravaioli, Paolo Garagnani and Maria Giulia Bacalini take a closer look how age related epigenetic changes promote inflammaging. Furthermore they discuss the role on envioronmental and microbial stimuli and how they can affect the rate of inflammaging via epigenetic mechanisms.
If and how a tumor develops, depends in large part on its surroundings. While scientists agree on the importance of the tumor environment (TE), there is no consensus on how to define and spatially delineate it.
A new paper by Lucie Laplane, Dorothée Duluc, Nicolas Larmonier, Thomas Pradeu and Andreas Bikfalvi lays out six clearly defined layers that surround the tumor: (i) the tumor cell-only environment, (ii) the niche, and the (iii) confined, (iv) proximal, (v) peripheral, and (vi) organismal tumor environment. The authors show the different tumor-promoting or -suppressing mechanisms at work in the different layers and how they impact therapeutic approaches.
