What Happens When a Cell Breaks Down?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

In cancer, one of the first steps of carsonagenic transformation is a closure of the gab junctions. And i think this is exactly what happens when you as a cell, which your identity was was smeared out all over this tissue. The self literally shrinks. We've shown that we can make metastatic melanoma in perfectly normal tadpoles by preventing electrical communication briefly. It suggests that cancer doesn't just have to be treated by trying to chase down all these irrevocably broken cells and killing them with some sort of toxin. You might be able to convince them to rejoin the collective.

As a semi-outsider, it’s fun for me to watch as a new era dawns in biology: one that adds ideas from physics, big data, computer science, and information theory to the usual biological toolkit. One of the big areas of study in this burgeoning field is the relationship between the basic bioinformatic building blocks (genes and proteins) to the macroscopic organism that eventually results. That relationship is not a simple one, as we’re discovering. Standard metaphors notwithstanding, an organism is not a machine based on genetic blueprints. I talk with biologist and information scientist Michael Levin about how information and physical constraints come together to make organisms and selves.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Michael Levin received his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University. He is currently Distinguished Professor and Vannevar Bush Chair in the Biology department at Tufts University, and serves as director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. His work on left-right asymmetric body structures is on Nature’s list of 100 Milestones of Developmental Biology of the Century.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.