The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research

Following Important Leads

Systems Biology

The growing field of systems biology incorporates a broad view of bioinformatics and how data applications and complex mathematics apply to cancer. Current NCI-supported research in model organisms, computational biology, and signaling, just to name a few, are all moving forward at a faster pace, thanks to the higher integration and speed of today’s computer processors and some truly innovative thinking. Measuring, modeling, and manipulating how we view cancer through networks, not individual components, is possible, in part, because of highly sensitive and groundbreaking technology.

Using a concept similar to forecasting the weather, but considerably more complex, Vito Quaranta, M.D., director of Vanderbilt University’s Integrative Cancer Biology Center, and colleagues developed a computer model that simulates tumor growth. The model predicts that a harsh microenvironment, such as that created by chemotherapy drugs, causes more aggressive, invasive cells to dominate, increasing the chance of metastasis. In the model each time a cell divides, researchers can randomly pick from a set of 100 different “phenotypes” — behaviors that result from distinct genetic characteristics, such as traits that allow it to divide more quickly. The environmental conditions, such as the level of oxygen and the characteristics of the microenvironment, are set by the researchers. “What we get is a picture of cells that are evolving and growing within a microenvironment,” said Dr. Quaranta. “The nice thing about computer simulations is you can create ‘what if’ scenarios: what if we make the oxygen very high, what if we turn oxygen off in the middle of tumor growth, what if we change the landscape of connective tissue.” The long-term goal of this research is that, with the tools of mathematical modeling and computer simulation, physicians will be able to determine the best drugs to treat each stage of a patient’s cancer.

In the coming years, NCI will more fully integrate diverse scientific fields of study into our current cancer research agenda, as clearly, we’re already learning a great deal from our colleagues across the scientific universe.