Visiting Member Robert Austin argues that cancer is qualitatively different from most other conditions that impact human health, that it could be deliberately programmed event, and tolerated by the organism viewed collectively.
Abstract
I would argue that treating cancer as another yet disease to be conquered possibly misses the point that cancer is qualitatively different from most other conditions that impact human health. Perhaps cancer fulfills an important fitness function to the collective community and it is qualitatively different then what is normally viewed as a disease. Perhaps it is a deliberately programmed event, and tolerated by the organism viewed collectively. The 4 related questions I will discuss are:
1) Why do we view cancer as a disease?
2) Why do we always try to destroy a tumor?
3) What is the role of game theory in cancer dynamics?
4) Is there a evolutionary function to the metastatic transition?
About the speaker
Professor Austin completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne in 1975. He has been teaching at Princeton University since 1978 and is current Professor of Physics. His research interests are in experimental biological physics over a wide range of areas, including Fundamentals of Protein Dynamics: Energy Landscapes and Quantum Mechanics of Proteins, DNA Dynamics: sequence influences, Nanotechnology: DNA Dynamics, Nanotechnology: Micro/nanofluidics and recently Ecology and Evolution Dynamics. His research group is also in the process of developing novel techniques to quickly resolve DNA of different lengths and cells of different size in microchannels. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and won the Lilienfeld Prize, American Physical Society.
