Stochastic epithelial-mesenchymal transitions diversify non-cancerous lung cell behaviours

Data‐ and theory‐driven approaches for understanding paths of epithelial–mesenchymal transition

“…The connection between hybrid cellular states and high‐order multistability (more than two co‐existing attractors) provides a theoretical basis for studying the complex EMT system. In this framework, transitions among the EMT states can be driven by signals that trigger the disappearance of certain attractors (Wang et al, 2022) (Figure 1c), or stochastic gene expression that permits “jumps” among co‐existing attractors (Bhatia et al, 2023; Li et al, 2016) (Figure 1d). A recent work showed an additional type of transitions driven by limit cycle oscillations with diverging periods (Nordick, Yu, et al, 2022) (Figure 1e).…”