‘cyber war’ on cancer’s ‘social networking’

Experts declare ‘cyber war’ on cancer’s ‘social networking’

Researchers at Rice, Tel Aviv and Johns Hopkins universities aim to break cancer’s command-and-control codes

September 5, 2012

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Social bacteria: this colony of bacteria contains pioneer cells that pave the way for colony expansion in the same way that specialized cancer cells prepare for metastasis.(credit: Eshel Ben-Jacob/Tel Aviv University)

In the face of mounting evidence that cancer cells communicate, cooperate and even engage in collective decision-making, biophysicists and cancer researchers at Rice University, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University are suggesting a new strategy for outsmarting cancer through its own social intelligence.

“We need to get beyond the notion that cancer is a random collection of cells running amok —  these cells lead sophisticated social lives,” said Herbert Levine, co-director of Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and co-author of the cover article in this week’s Trends in Microbiology that pulls together dozens of recent discoveries about the social behavior of cancer cells./.../