UF researchers ask, ‘What if oncologists thought like ecologists?’

In a new article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, UF researchers draw insights observed from ecological systems to understand and manage cancer.

The article is the latest piece of scholarship to emerge from a decade-long collaboration among Brent Reynolds, Ph.D., a professor in the Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery; Madan Oli, Ph.D., a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation; and Monika Oli, Ph.D., a senior lecturer of microbiology and cell science.

The authors hope their work will provide a theoretical basis for future applied cancer research.

“When I started to spend time with Madan and other ecologists, I realized that the conversations they were having were very similar to the conversation I was having with oncologists,” Reynolds said. “We were all talking about populations — in the ecologists’ case, animal or plant populations, in the oncologists’ case, populations of cells.”

Read the full UF IFAS blog post. 

Learn more about Dr. Reynolds’ research and “eco-oncology” collaboration in this brief video: