Cancer attractors and cell population dynamics: The non-genetic, non-Darwinian (Lamarckian) evolution of cancer drug resistance

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Cancer is a disruption of normal cell development. In the view of the quasi-potential landscape of gene networks, cancer arises because cells are pushed into developmentally inaccessible, evolutionary ancient “side-valleys” – the cancer attractors. I will present experiments supporting this alternative view and apply such non-genetic dynamics to show how Lamarckian (as opposed to Darwinian) dynamics initiates development of cancer drug resistance.