Explosive Evolution Under Stress: The Driving Forces of Cancer Dynamics (Main)

耐药癌细胞在最初的治疗后重新出现，是肿瘤学中尚未解决的、致命的重大问题之一，也是应激下进化的根本问题。这个项目的目的是从物理学、生态学和生物学的一般原理来理解为什么耐药癌细胞的复发似乎是癌症中的普遍现象。我们认为，在小而紧张的栖息地中的进化是迅速和不可避免地重新出现耐药性的关键。推动这个项目的物理技术使用微小的、有压力的栖息地的微制造来测试这些想法。物理探针、基因组学、蛋白质组学和纳米技术的现代技术将使我们能够分析这些新出现的耐药细胞的进化路径。

The re-emergence of resistant cancer cells after initial therapy is one of the great unsolved, and deadly, problems in oncology, and a fundamental problem of evolution under stress. This project is aimed at understanding, from general principles of physics, ecology, and biology, why recurrence of resistant cancer cells seems to be a universal phenomenon in cancer. We believe that evolution in small, stressed habitats is the key to the rapid and inevitable re-emergence of resistance. The physical technology that drives this Project uses microfabrication of tiny, stressed habitats to test these Ideas. Modern techniques of physical probes, genomics, proteomics and nanotechnology will allow us to analyze the evolutionary path of these emergent resistant cells.