Explaining a soccer match using omics? (2021)
Imagine you are an extraterrestrial scientist observing soccer stadiums on Earth. These strange stadiums/cells present on the surface of the planet are sometimes full of fans/proteins and at other times empty. When they are full, you can detect a variety of noises that coincide with different things happening inside the nucleus of these stadiums/cells.
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A new advanced technology allows聽you to identify and map what is聽inside the nucleus of these stadiums/cells: 22 players/chromosomes clearly聽classifiable into two different groups聽by mapping specific expressed聽鈥渁ntigens鈥 on their uniform/surface.
A deluge of data floods your computers.聽These players/chromosomes seem to聽be correlated by an unidentified law.聽Depending on the positions of these聽players/chromosomes in the nucleus,聽the fans/proteins positioned around聽the border of the stadiums/cells emit聽different noises. There is a cycle of 90聽minutes of activity followed by a week聽of lethargy in these stadiums/cells.
These cells cause many problems in聽the correlated microenvironment: a聽few hours before the activity begins聽in them, many substances invade聽the space around them. The entire聽microenvironment presents the聽characteristic signs of stress and聽inflammation.
On your planet, this situation is called聽鈥渃ancer鈥. Your department provides you聽with generous financial support for your聽research aimed at better understanding聽these strange pathologic processes and聽finding a remedy for them.
After several years of work, you have聽been able to identify white filaments聽at the core of the cell, a membrane聽composed by green villi on which the聽22 players/chromosomes move, and a聽resistant shell that protects the stadiums/cells.
Finally, you discover the 鈥渕agic ball鈥:聽a white molecule that drives the entire聽system. Depending on the position of聽this 鈥渕agic ball鈥, the noise emitted by聽the stadiums/cell and the position of the聽22 players/chromosomes change.
All your efforts are now focused on聽mapping every possible position of聽this 鈥渕agic ball鈥 and correlating these聽positions with those of the 22 players/chromosomes and the noise emitted by聽the cell.
The solution is now clear: destroy the聽鈥渕agic ball鈥. Once it has been eliminated,聽the 鈥渃ancer鈥 will heal.
Can we learn something from this story聽as an analogy to the way we approach聽the study of cancer, its complexity and聽all the molecular data we are collecting?聽What was the extraterrestrial scientist聽doing wrong?
For us, who know the rules of a soccer聽match, it is easy to understand聽the 鈥渆pistemological error鈥 of our聽extraterrestrial scientist. The ball is not聽the cause of all the systems鈥 dynamics,聽even if all the parameters seem to be聽correlated to it. It is quite an impossible聽task to grasp the rules of soccer just by聽mapping the ball鈥檚 position during the聽time of the match. Are we making the聽same error in our cancer research?
I think this question should be better聽investigated in order to give a deeper聽biological meaning to all the data we聽are collecting from all the experiments聽performed in biomedical cancer聽research.
REFERENCES:
- Mitchel SD (2009) Unsimple Truths, Science,聽Complexity and Policy. The University of Chicago聽Press.
- Bertolaso M (2016) Philosophy of Cancer 鈥 A Dynamic聽and Relational View. Springer Series in 鈥淗istory,聽Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences鈥.
- Strauss B, Bertolaso M, Ernberg I, Bissel M (2021)聽Rethinking cancer - A New Paradigm for the聽Postgenomics Era, MIT press.
CCBIO Opinion.聽Text: Marta Bertolaso, CCBIO International Faculty
