(675g) Invited Speaker: Systems Biology of Cancer – What Can We Learn?

Cancer is a devastating disease that afflicts millions worldwide. It is a complex disease that involves processes at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organism level. Thus, a combination of computational systems biology and modern experimental high-throughput approaches is necessary to understand and eventually find cures for the disease. The complex interactions between cancer cells and various stromal cells is a hallmark of cancer. I will discuss our experimental studies in which we investigate cell interactions via secreted factors (secretomes) and how these factors facilitate tumor progression and metastasis. We use this knowledge to build multiscale computational models that describe signaling pathways and ligand-receptor interactions, 3D spatial distribution of ligands and drugs, and cellular and tissue processes using a combination of differential equations and agent-based modeling. I will discuss emergent studies in systems biology and systems pharmacology applied to immunotherapy, including targeting immune checkpoints that shows promise in several type of cancer. I will show results of computational analysis of pathology slides for several types of cancer to quantify tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and its treatment modulation. Such quantitative patients’ information is utilized to calibrate and validate computational models. In summary, cancer systems biology is a powerful methodology that will play an important role in defeating cancer.