Physiology of Yogic Practices

1. Science as Koan: Stem cells, complexity, and the science of Being All lands are in my body And so are the Buddhas living there; Watch my pores, And I will show you the Buddha’s realm. Avatamsaka (Flower Ornament) Sutra Neil Theise MD Departments of Pathology & Medicine Beth Israel Medical Center – Albert Einstein College of Medicine New York City www.neiltheise.com

2. True Nature of Reality

3. Cognitive Contemplative True Nature of Reality

4. Cognitive Contemplative

5. Cognitive Contemplative Germs exist and cause disease

6. Cognitive Contemplative Germs exist and cause disease UV light leads to suntans and skin cancer

7. Cognitive Contemplative Germs exist and cause disease UV light leads to suntans and skin cancer Our galaxy is one of uncountable numbers in the universe…

8. Cognitive Contemplative

9. Cognitive Contemplative Physical Nature of Reality Spiritual Nature of Reality

10. Cognitive Contemplative Physical Nature of Reality Spiritual Nature of Reality 1998

13. Lethal Irradiation Male bone marrow transplant F.I.S.H. for Y-Chromosome

15. The Standard Paradigm: Restricted Plasticity

16. Irreversible gene restrictions Embryology & Adult Tissue Reconstitution Self renewal

17. BEWARE OF DOGMA

18. The Great Stem Cell Debate 2001

19. Embryonic Stem Cells All three layers of the embryo: Mesoderm, Endoderm, Ectoderm

20. Embryonic Stem Cells All three layers of the embryo: Mesoderm: muscle, blood, bone Endoderm: visceral organs Ectoderm: brain, nerves, skin so….

21. Embryonic Stem Cells Can make everything!

22. Embryonic Stem Cells Can make everything, in order to: perform cell transplants… create artificial organs (livers!) implant genes for gene therapies…

23. Embryonic Stem Cells Can make everything! Adult Stem Cells Can make . . . ?

33. MESODERM True clonality = True adult stem cell plasticity! One Adult Cell ENDODERM ECTODERM

34. Pause

36. What if gene restrictions are REVERSIBLE?

38. Proof of Principle

39. 3 Principles of Plasticity Theise & Krause BCMD , May 2001 Leukemia, April Fool’s Day 2002 Comptes Rendus Biologies, December 2002

40. 1. Genomic Completeness 2. Cellular Uncertainty 3. Stochasticity of Cell Origins and Fates

41. 1. Genomic Completeness 2. Cellular Uncertainty 3. Stochasticity of Cell Origins and Fates

42. “… the internal and the external co-determine the cell.” Richard Lewontin, 2000

43. 2 nd Principle: Cellular Uncertainty Any attempt to observe a cell alters the state of that cell at the time of characterization and potentially alters the likelihood of subsequent differentiation events.

44. 2 nd Principle: Cellular Uncertainty Any attempt to observe a cell alters the state of that cell at the time of characterization and potentially alters the likelihood of subsequent differentiation events. ?

45. Meanwhile, back at the plasticity debates…

46. Controversy!!!

47. trivial... vs. ROBUST!!!

48. Conversations with Jane Prophet New Media Artist and Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies University of Westminster, London UK SciArt Award, Wellcome Trust 2002

49. Date: 9th May 2002 Location: Neil's office, New York Jane says: “Ideas about pathways are interesting. A lot of people who are involved in digital biology are interested in things like swarming people and so called ’soup organism’ behaviour. And one of the useful models to take forward is about ant colonies…”

50. Complex Adaptive Systems: 1,2 1 Lewin R, Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos. 2nd ed. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press; 2002. 2 Johnson S, Emergence. New York NY: Scribner; 2001.

51. Complex Adaptive Systems: Interacting individuals that, fulfilling 4 criteria, organize themselves from the bottom up, into larger structures…

52. Complex Adaptive Systems: Interacting individuals that, if they fulfill 4 criteria, organize themselves from the bottom up, into larger structures, which appear planned from the top, downward…

53. Complex Adaptive Systems: Interacting individuals that, if they fulfill 4 criteria, organize themselves from the bottom up, into larger structures, which appear planned from the top, downward, BUT ARE NOT!

54. Complex Adaptive Systems: Interacting individuals that, if they fulfill 4 criteria, organize themselves from the bottom up, into larger structures which appear planned from the top, downward, BUT ARE NOT! These structures are referred to as “ emergent self-organization” and are ADAPTIVE.

55. Complex Adaptive Systems: Rise and fall of economic markets Urban development Immune systems Beatlemania Rise and fall of civilizations Evolution and speciation

56. Complex Adaptive Systems: Rise and fall of economic markets Urban development Immune systems Beatlemania Rise and fall of civilizations Evolution and speciation Conciousness

57. Complex Adaptive Systems: Rise and fall of economic markets Urban development Immune systems Beatlemania Rise and fall of civilizations Evolution and speciation Conciousness Sesshin!

66. Low level engraftment is not only NOT trivial, but it is VITAL – literally so. 1-3 1 Theise ND. Exp Hematology 2003 2 D’Inverno M, Theise ND. BCMD 2004 3 D’Inverno M, Theise ND, Prophet J. In: Potten C, Wilson J, Clarke R, Renahan A: Tissue stem cells: Biology and applications

67. Pause

68. Implications of Cell Lineages as Complex Adaptive Systems Mass extinctions.

69. order disorder “ chaos”

70. disorder “ chaos” complex adaptive systems order

71. Implications of Cell Lineages as Complex Adaptive Systems Mass extinctions, eg: ? Aplastic anemia ? Fulminant liver failure

72. Implications of Cell Lineages as Complex Adaptive Systems The price of adaptation, i.e. of LIFE, is DEATH

73. Implications of Cell Lineages as Complex Adaptive Systems Hierarchies of complex systems…

77. Implications of Cell Lineages as Complex Adaptive Systems Hierarchies of complex systems… thing vs. phenomena depends on scale of observation

78. Communities Bodies Cells

79. e.g. cities, cultures, ecosystems, Gaia Bodies Cells

80. Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules ?

81. Communities Bodies Cells ?

82. Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules

83. Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules More implications, of course.

84. 1. Genomic Completeness ? Cellular Uncertainty 3. Stochasticity of Cell Origins and Fates

85. Theise ND. Now you see it, now you don’t. Nature , May 2005 “ Cell doctrine: modern biology and medicine see the cell as the fundamental building block of living organisms, but this concept breaks down at different perspectives and scales.” Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules

86. “ The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at which the body is observed… Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules

87. “ The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at which the body is observed. To limit ourselves to the perspective of this model may mean that explications of some bodily phenomena remain outside the capacity of modern biology… Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules

88. “ The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at which the body is observed. To limit ourselves to the perspective of this model may mean that explications of some bodily phenomena remain outside the capacity of modern biology… e.g. Acupuncture Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules

89. “ The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at which the body is observed. To limit ourselves to the perspective of this model may mean that explications of some bodily phenomena remain outside the capacity of modern biology. It is perhaps time to dethrone the doctrine of the cell, to allow alternative models of the body for study and exploitation in this new, postmodern era of biological investigation.” Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules

90. What kind of models?

91. for example, 2 models from Ancient Greece: Is the body made of… indivisible subunits or an endlessly divisible fluid

96. Models of the body are perspective/technique dependent Look at it this way (cell membranes): the body is made of cells Look at it that way (organelles): the body is an endlessly divisible fluid

97. Models are perspective/technique dependent Look at it this way (cell membranes): the body is made of cells Look at it that way (organelles): the body is an endlessly divisible fluid Yet another way (the genome): … overlapping spatial/temporal fields of molecular organization

98. Pause

99. Still more implications of complexity in life…

100. Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules Atoms

101. Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules Atoms Subatomic Particles

102. Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules Atoms Subatomic Particles Strings (or whatever)

103. Communities Bodies Cells Biomolecules Atoms Subatomic Particles Strings (or whatever) The Quantum Foam

104. We don’t live in the universe . . .

105. . . . we are the universe

106. The Relative

107. The Absolute

116. Implications of Everything as Complex Adaptive System Buddhist Metaphysics

117. Pause

118. Cognitive Contemplative 1998

119. Cognitive Contemplative

120. Cognitive Contemplative One True Nature of Reality, Not Two…

121. Diane Krause MD PhD Saul Sharkis MD PhD, Michael Collector Octavian Henegariu MD Sonya Hwang MD, Rebekah Gardner Sarah Neutzel Single cell multiorgan plasticity

122. Cell Team Jane Prophet Mark D’Inverno Rob Saunders Peter Ride Neil Theise Discussions were part of the production of "Cell", a collaboration across art and science funded by a Wellcome Trust SciArt Award and an award from Future Physical. "Cell" is coordinated by Peter Ride and is a DA2 Digital Arts Agency production.

123. my Zen teacher, Roshi Pat Enkyo O’hara and of course …