Ricerc@Sapienza

In this report, we aim at presenting a viable strategy for the study of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and its opposite Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition (MET) by means of a Systems Biology approach combined with a suitable Mathematical Modeling analysis. Precisely, it is shown how the presence of a metastable state, that is identified at a mesoscopic level of description, is crucial for making possible the appearance of a phase transition mechanism in the framework of fast-slow dynamics for Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs).

What does it mean to say that event X caused outcome Y in biology? Explaining the causal
structure underlying the dynamic function of living systems is a central goal of biology.
Transformative advances in regenerative medicine and synthetic bioengineering will require
efficient strategies to cause desired system- level outcomes. We present a perspective on the
need to move beyond the classical ‘necessary and sufficient’ approach to biological causality