Last update:

   01-Aug-2022
 

Arch Hellen Med, 39(4),July-August 2022, 550-569

SPECIAL ARTICLE

Chaotic mechanics and biological systems:
The "Lapis Philosophorum" for the prediction of biological systems?

K. Adamopoulos,1 D. Koutsouris,1 G.I. Lambrou1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens,
2Choremeio Research Laboratory, First Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Biological systems, and their comprehension, constitute one of the greatest challenges for current research. Studies have shown that biological systems have complex dynamics, and that cell proliferation is a phenomenon that follows chaotic dynamics. The question arises regarding the necessity for such studies, linking the tools and theories of chaotic mechanics with biological systems, and in particular with the theories of carcinogenesis and cancer ontogeny. We understand that if there were a way to describe such a system, and in particular a biological system, with a series of equations, we would be able to describe the course of biological phenomena, such as the transformation of a cell to a malignant phenotype, the course of inflammatory response of a tissue after a stimulus, etc. It is apparent that we are not yet in a position to describe such phenomena, not even approximately. This is the subject of the present paper, in which we describe the methods and theories that could probably be the key to a deeper understanding of these biological phenomena. One of the most complex phenomena and greatest challenges in current biological research is the biology of cancer, to which we will refer specifically. Despite the complexity of the subject, we have attempted to use the minimum of mathematical formulations, and their comprehension is not required to understand the context of the present work; our aim is to introduce a link between chaos mechanics, including its ideas and tools, and biological systems.

Key words: Biological systems, Cancer, Chaotic mechanics, Prediction models.


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