Cellular Differentiation and Response to Stress: Modeling Cancer Initiation and Progression

The Sedona Workshop was held under the auspices of the Arizona State University Physical Sciences Oncology Center, and was the third in the series of focused workshops on different aspects of cancer. The core focus of this workshop was the differential response of tumor cells to environmental stress. This central issue was approached by three groups: i) experts in the cancer field, ranging from cell biologists to bioinformaticists to pathologists, ii) biologists and bioengineers with expertise in cell differentiation in the context of stem cells and developmental biology, and iii) a cadre of biological modelers, with backgrounds in physics, engineering, and mathematics.