Unit
BIOLOGICAL NOISE
Description
Biological noise is a phenomenon that spans all levels of biological organization. This phenomenon ensures that each individual in a population is unique, so populations of organisms act similarly but not identically. This phenomenon has important consequences in pathologies such as cancer. Where cellular heterogeneity causes therapies to fail.
This image illustrates the prevalence of biological noise in solid tumors. It is a squamous skin cancer where we show the expression of two proteins, green and red. It can be observed the presence of cells expressing each of these markers exclusively, as well as combinations of both. The conclusion is that each cell is unique.
Personal
Francisco José Iborra
Publications
Feature Publications
Active RNA polymerases are localized within discrete transcription “factories’ in human nuclei
FJ Iborra, A Pombo, DA Jackson, PR Cook (1996)
Journal of cell science 109 (6), 1427-1436
Numbers and organization of RNA polymerases, nascent transcripts, and transcription units in HeLa nuclei
DA Jackson, FJ Iborra, EMM Manders, PR Cook (1998)
Molecular biology of the cell 9 (6), 1523-1536
Coupled transcription and translation within nuclei of mammalian cells
FJ Iborra, DA Jackson, PR Cook (2001)
Science 293 (5532), 1139-1142
NOV (CCN3) functions as a regulator of human hematopoietic stem or progenitor cells
R Gupta, D Hong, F Iborra, S Sarno, T Enver (2007)
Science 316 (5824), 590-593
Connecting variability in global transcription rate to mitochondrial variability
RP Das Neves, NS Jones, L Andreu, R Gupta, T Enver, FJ Iborra (2010)
PLoS Biol 8 (12), e1000560
Mitochondrial variability as a source of extrinsic cellular noise
IG Johnston, B Gaal, RP Das Neves, T Enver, NS Jones, FJ Iborra. (2012)
PLoS Comput Biol 8 (3), e1002416
Global variability in gene expression and alternative splicing is modulated by mitochondrial content
R Guantes, A Rastrojo, R Neves, A Lima, B Aguado, FJ Iborra (2015)
Genome research 25 (5), 633-644
Mitochondria and the non‐genetic origins of cell‐to‐cell variability: More is different
R Guantes, J Díaz‐Colunga, FJ Iborra (2016)
Bioessays 38 (1), 64-76
Mitochondrial levels determine variability in cell death by modulating apoptotic gene expression
S Márquez-Jurado, J Díaz-Colunga, RP das Neves, A Martinez-Lorente, Fernando Almazán, Raúl Guantes, Francisco J Iborra (2018)
Nature communications 9 (1), 1-11