Measuring and modeling the cell-state transitions in cancer progression and treatment

Organizers:

Mohit Kumar Jolly ( Assistant Professor, Center for Biosystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Sceince Bengaluru, India), Kishore Hari (PhD Student, Center for Biosystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Sceince Bengaluru, India)

Description:

Cancer, the process of uncontrolled growth and invasion of cells within the body, is emergent from a complex interaction of adaptive processes, including evasion of cell growth suppression, immune evasion, metabolic adaptation and so on. Each of these adaptations are associated with one or more changes in cancer cell state. While traditionally, genetic mechanisms were believed to be the cause of such adaptations, recent emergence of high throughput data consistently supports the important role of non-genetic mechanisms of adaptation. Especially in key aspects of cancer such as stemness, metastasis and drug resistance, non-genetic mechanisms are seen to play a crucial role. At this early stage of development of the field, it is important maintain a healthy interaction between experimental and mathematical models to gain a swift understanding of these processes. A major focus of the minisymposium is to understand and prevent the emergence of drug-tolerant persisters which is an important challenge for clinicians today. No existing therapy currently targets persisters specifically in either killing them or differentiating them into a drug-sensitive state. Thus, a better understanding of their dynamics can inform strategies to contain the effect of these persisters, directly contributing to developing more effective therapies.