Electromagnetic Fields, Genomic Instability and Cancer: A Systems Biological View

This review discusses the use of systems biology in understanding the biological effects of electromagnetic fields, with particular focus on induction of genomic instability and cancer. We introduce basic concepts of the dynamical systems theory such as the state space and attractors and the use of these concepts in understanding the behavior of complex biological systems. We then discuss genomic instability in the framework of the dynamical systems theory, and describe the hypothesis that environmentally induced genomic instability corresponds to abnormal attractor states; large enough environmental perturbations can force the biological system to leave normal evolutionarily optimized attractors (corresponding to normal cell phenotypes) and migrate to less stable variant attractors. We discuss experimental approaches that can be coupled with theoretical systems biology such as testable predictions, derived from the theory and experimental methods, that can be used for measuring the state of the complex biological system. We also review potentially informative studies and make recommendations for further studies.