Self-organization, complexity and chaos: The new biology for medicine (original) (raw)

Nature Medicine volume 4, pages 882–885 (1998)Cite this article

The self-organization of cells into complex interacting systems can be described using a branch of mathematics called nonlinear dynamics, which includes the study of chaos. Here, Donald Coffey explains how analysis of complex biological systems using nonlinear dynamics sheds light on the events leading to disorders as varied as epilepsy, heart disease and cancer

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$209.00 per year

only $17.42 per issue

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

References

  1. Glanz, J. Mastering the Nonlinear Brain. Science 277, 1758–1760 (1997).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  2. Langton, C.G., Taylor, C., Fanner, D. & Rassmussen, S. Artificial Life II. Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Proceedings Vol. 10 (Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, California, 1992).
    Google Scholar
  3. Kauffman, S.A. in The Origin of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993).
    Google Scholar
  4. Biebricher, C.K., Nicolis, G. & Schuster, P. Self-Organization in the Physico-Chemical and Life Sciences. EUR Report No. 16546 European Commission, Brussels, Belgium (1995).
  5. Goldberg, A.L., Rigney, D.A. & West, B.J. Chaos and fractals in human physiology. Sci. Am. 262, 42–49 (1990).
    Article Google Scholar
  6. Gleick, J. Chaos (Viking, New York, 1987).
    Google Scholar
  7. Lewin, R.S. in Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos (Collier Books, New York, 1993).
    Google Scholar
  8. Sugihara, G., Allan, W., Sobel, D. & Allan, K.D. Nonlinear control of heart rate variability in human infants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 2608–2613 (1996).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  9. Schiff, S.J. et al. Controlling chaos in the brain. Nature 370, 615–620 (1994).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  10. Denton, T.A., Diamond, G.A., Helfant, R.H., Kahn, S. & Karagueuzian, H. Fascinating rhythm: A primer on chaos theory and its application to cardiology. Am. Heart J. 120, 1419–1440 (1990).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  11. Poon, C-S. & Merril, C.K. Decrease of cardiac chaos in congestive heart failure. Nature 389, 492–495 (1997).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  12. Garfinkel, A., Spano, M.L., Ditto, W.L. & Weiss, J.N. Controlling cardiac chaos. Science 257, 1230–1235 (1992).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  13. Gupta, S., Ferguson, N. & Anderson, R. Chaos, persistence and evolution of strain structure in antigenically diverse infectious agents. Science 280, 912–915 (1998).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  14. Budrene, E.O. & Berg, H.C. Dynamics of formation of symmetrical patterns by chemotactic bacteria. Nature 376, 49–53 (1995).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  15. Davies, D.G. et al. The involvement of cell-to-cell signals in the development of a bacterial biofilm. cience 280, 295–298 (1998).
    CAS Google Scholar
  16. Eigen, M. Viral quasispecies. Sci. Am. 269, 42–49 (1993).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  17. Posadas, E.M., Criley, S.R., & Coffey, D.S. Chaotic oscillations in cultured cells: Rat prostate cancer. Cancer Res. 56, 3682–3688 (1996).
    CAS PubMed Google Scholar
  18. Schwab, E.D. & Pienta, K.J. Explaining abberations of cell structure and cell signaling in cancer using complex adaptive systems. in Advances in Molecular and Cell Biology Vol. 24 (eds. Bittar, E.E. and Getzenberg, R.H.) 207–247 (JAI, London, 1997).
    Google Scholar
  19. Malins, D.C., Polissar, N.L., Schaefer, S., Su, Y. & Vinson, M. A unified theory of carcinogenesis based on order-disorder transitions in DNA structure as studied in human ovary and breast. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95 (13)7637–7642 (1998).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  20. Adami, C. in Introduction to Artificial Life. (Springer, New York, 1998).
    Book Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21287, USA
    Donald S. Coffey

Authors

  1. Donald S. Coffey
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Coffey, D. Self-organization, complexity and chaos: The new biology for medicine.Nat Med 4, 882–885 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0898-882

Download citation

This article is cited by