This week in MathOnco 238

Spatial evolutionary dynamics, cancer fitness genes, self vs nonself, and phenotypic plasticity

“This week in Mathematical Oncology” — Jan. 12, 2023

> mathematical-oncology.org

From the editor:


Happy 2023! To start off the new year, we have papers on spatial evolutionary dynamics, cancer fitness genes, self vs nonself, and phenotypic plasticity.

Enjoy,

Jeffrey West
jeffrey.west@moffitt.org

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“It's not survival of the fittest, it's the non-survival of the not-fit-enoughs.”
— J. Norman (paraphrase)

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1. Evolutionary rescue of resistant mutants is governed by a balance between radial expansion and selection in compact populations
   Serhii Aif, Nico Appold, Lucas Kampman, Oskar Hallatschek, Jona Kayser

2. Integration of Quantitative Methods and Mathematical Approaches for the Modeling of Cancer Cell Proliferation Dynamics
   Michael Cotner, Sarah Meng, Tyler Jost, Andrea Gardner, Carolina De Santiago, Amy Brock

3. COVID-19 vaccine incentive scheduling using an optimally controlled reinforcement learning model
   K. Stuckey, P.K. Newton

4. Cancer fitness genes: emerging therapeutic targets for metastasis
   Minhong Shen, Yibin Kang

5. Interacting active surfaces: A model for three-dimensional cell aggregates
   Alejandro Torres-Sánchez, Max Kerr Winter, Guillaume Salbreux

6. Real-time, volumetric imaging of radiation dose delivery deep into the liver during cancer treatment
   Wei Zhang, Ibrahim Oraiqat, Dale Litzenberg, Kai-Wei Chang, …, Paul L. Carson, Kyle C. Cuneo, Xueding Wang, Issam El Naqa

7. Towards a unification of the 2 meanings of “epigenetics”
   Sui Huang

8. Understanding cellular growth strategies via optimal control
   Tommi Mononen, Teemu Kuosmanen, Johannes Cairns, Ville Mustonen

1. Mutation divergence over space in tumour expansion
   Haiyang Li, Fengyu Tu, Lijuan Deng, Zixuan Yang, Yuqing Han, Xing Fu, Long Wang, Di Gu, Benjamin Werner, Weini Huang

2. How different are self and nonself?
   Andreas Mayer, Christopher J. Russo, Quentin Marcou, William Bialek, Benjamin D. Greenbaum

1. How does phenotypic plasticity influence the onset of cancer metastasis?
   The Mathematical Oncology Blog
   Saumil Shah, Arne Traulsen, Michael Raatz: “Metastasis is a hallmark of cancer. During spread and establishment tumor cells face different and fluctuating selection pressures (e.g. attack by the immune system in the circulation or resource competition at a tumor site). Tumor cells adapt to these changing pressures by resorting to reprogramming processes that allow them to plastically change their phenotype. Moreover, plasticity may also enable drug tolerance and temporary resistance in tumors. In our recent preprint, we focus on carcinomas, cancer of epithelial cells, that are known to show epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity. This plasticity is driven by the transition between more proliferative epithelial and more invasive mesenchymal phenotypes.”

2. Thoughts on applying for faculty positions
   By Arjun Raj, upon discussions with postdocs from around the world navigating the academic job market

The newsletter now has a dedicated homepage where we post the cover artwork for each issue. We encourage submissions that coincide with the release of a recent paper from your group. This week’s artwork:

Based on the paper: “The harsh microenvironment in early breast cancer selects for a Warburg phenotype” in PNAS

Artist: Mehdi Damaghi, Jeffrey West

Caption: "Glucose is converted to energy through "fermentation" or "oxidation." Generally, if oxygen is available, cells will oxidize glucose to CO2 because it is more efficient than fermentation, which produces lactic acid. But Otto Warburg noted that cancers ferment glucose at a "remarkable" rate even if O2 is available! Using a combination of in vitro experiments, RNA sequencing, and mathematical modelling we propose that the harsh microenviroment near the ductal center in the breast foments the emergence of such a Warburg Effect phenotype, providing an explanation for how DCIS progresses to a lethal disease."

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