From cancer to Alzheimer's: could a renewed focus on energy transform biomedicine?

"Both a cadaver and a thinking, feeling, living person are made up of molecules, cells, tissues and organs - the fundamental distinguishing factor is energy flow."

"Molecular pathways that control diverse aspects of biology vary between individuals and between species because they are underpinned by genetics. It is no surprise, then, that molecular mechanisms of disease found in mice, fruit flies, zebrafish and other model systems often fail to hold up when studied in humans."

"By contrast, the behaviour of energy in living systems follows several first principles from physics that apply across species more generally. Take the metabolic theory of ecology, which explains why cells in large mammals burn energy more slowly than do cells in smaller ones."

Energy is essential to all biological processes, flowing through cells in various forms. While biomedical research has developed metabolism-focused fields, most literature emphasizes genes, proteins, and molecular mechanisms while neglecting energy dynamics. The key distinction between living and dead organisms is energy flow, not molecular composition. Molecular pathways vary between individuals and species due to genetic differences, explaining why disease mechanisms discovered in model organisms often fail in humans. Energy behavior in living systems, however, follows universal physics principles applicable across species. The metabolic theory of ecology demonstrates this principle: cells in larger mammals burn energy more slowly than smaller ones due to physical constraints on nutrient and oxygen delivery through vascular systems.

Read at Nature