Here's a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial.
From a new model to better understand how cells 'make decisions' to research on how lifestyle choices could help improve survival for colon cancer patients, here is some quick-read news from across Imperial.
Cell division decisions
Imperial Mathematicians have devised a new model to better understand how cells 'make decisions'. Cells do not act all the same way, even if they are the same type, due to randomness during reactions between cells, and during cell growth and division. This makes it difficult to reliably predict the behaviour of cells, such as how they will respond to stress and drugs.
The new model treats cells as 'agents' that divide in response to network of reactions within the cells, showing how gene expression, cell division, and population dynamics affect their behaviour.
Dr Philipp Thomas and Dr Paul Piho fed their model with data from microscopy movies of bacteria and used this to describe a new mechanism for cells to make decisions through the coupling of gene expression to cell division.
This provides crucial insights into how cells respond to stress and drugs, which could help inform, for example, the mechanisms of drug-resistant cancers.
Read the full paper in Science Advances.
Cancer recommendations
Getting more exercise, eating more vegetables and whole grains, drinking coffee and cutting back on sugary drinks could help improve survival for colon cancer patients.
These are the latest recommendations to come from the World Cancer Research Fund, based on a review of available evidence.
However, the expert panel, which includes researchers from Imperial's School of Public Health, said the evidence was 'limited or suggestive', and called for more research to back up these recommendations.
Dr Doris Chan and Dr Kostas Tsilidis, from the Global Cancer Update Programme at Imperial said the analysis "represents the best and most up-to-date body of evidence". They add that the findings could help people living with or who have survived cancer to make "evidence-based decisions on lifestyle changes that can improve their well-being".
