Steven Altschuler, Ph.D., and Lani Wu, Ph.D. It is often
traditional to think of cells in specific tissues in the body as
if they were a single type; for example, we speak of liver
cells, fat cells, muscle cells in the case of solid tissue,
lymphocytes or red blood cells in the case of circulating cells,
and cancer cells in the case of disease states. But, much recent
research now argues that cells have individual personalities
that make each of them behave in slightly different ways. How
does the individuality of cells within tissues (whether normal
or cancerous) contribute to tissue function and how then should
we speak of models for “a cell type” if the cell type is
actually an amalgamation of different cell subtypes? Most
impressively, this work has led to the finding that specific
subsets of cells use their individuality to respond differently
to drugs, a result that might begin to explain why the
effectiveness of treatments can vary from person to person. This
research is especially exciting since it tu