A hierarchical organization of concepts (ontology) with three organizing principles: molecular functions (the tasks done by individual gene products), biological processes (for example, mitosis) and cellular components (examples include the nucleus and the telomere).
Finally, the data indicate that the β-cell is different than most cell types in terms of energy metabolism where activation of Ca2+, cAMP, PKB etc signaling promoted by a stimulus drives simultaneously a biological process (for example contraction), and cellular metabolism/ATP production to support it.
For example, molecular and cellular functions of T-ALL were involved more in cell death, while those of B-ALL were more involved in cell cycle.
American mathematician John H. Conway's "Game of Life" is a simple example, and other cellular automata can model complex physical or biological processes.
For example, therapeutic cloning and cellular reprogramming may one day provide a potentially limitless source of cells for tissue engineering applications.
For example, microbial metabolites and cellular products released in response to the damage caused by alcohol and its metabolites activate cell surface (e.g., TLR4) and intracellular (e.g., nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain [NOD]-like) receptors (Cohen et al. 2011; Petrasek et al. 2013).
This is the main point of the NKS book in fact, and Wolfram draws numerous examples from nature and cellular automata to make his case.
As an introduction, this study gives examples of biochemical and cellular events that are associated with such metabolic functions, transport processes, or signal transduction, and describes, again by way of example, how some xenobiotics may interfere with the functions mentioned.
It can be used for pharmacodynamic studies, for example drug receptor interactions and cellular proliferation, even detecting apoptotic cells in situ.
We should not dismiss however, the high redundancy found in biological systems, among which cancer cells represent probably the most spectacular example of accelerated selection and cellular adaptation to new environmental, genetic and metabolic challenges.
