Oscillations and Cancer

An appreciation of the prescience of Don Gilbert (1930–2011): master of the theory and experimental unravelling of biochemical and cellular oscillatory dynamics

“…Gilbert (1968) had always maintained that apparent inconsistency between theory and observation is easily resolvable if (a) the events of the cell cycle reflect the oscillatory generation of most of the regulatory processes and (b) proliferation control is exerted via transitions between periodic and aperiodic (or damped periodic) states as the result of changes in the values of the parameters determining the behaviour of the entire system. This concept can be briefly discussed in relation to: the wide variety of agents that can affect replication (Lloyd et al, 1982b); the existence of distinct non‐proliferative states; the continuous control of proliferation rate; variations in the sensitivity toward cell cycle inhibitory agents; senescence; the “loss” of control of cell division in cancer (Gilbert and MacKinnon, 1992; MacKinnon and Gilbert, 1992). The importance of these hypotheses now finds intensive research applications in anti‐cancer drug discovery (e.g., of specific protein kinase inhibitors, Bai et al, 2017).…”