Effectiveness of Social Networks for Studying Biological Agents and Identifying Cancer Biomarkers

Social networks form phenomena that exist and evolve; they are dynamic. These phenomena have been realized and studied by the anthropology and sociology research communities since 1930. However, the recent rapid development in information technology and the internet has increased the interest in social networks and as a model they have been adapted to more applications and domains. Though researchers first studied social networks of humans, for our study described in this chapter we argue that genes and proteins act collaboratively and exist in communities analogous to humans, animals, insects, etc. They complement each other and collectively achieve specific tasks where some would have major roles appearing upfront and others may play minor background roles. However, molecules turn into aggressive actors when their internal structure is augmented; consequently, they may deviate from their target, change camp, and disturb other molecules leading to disaster. Such mutations may be uncontrolled and unintentionally occur inside a body, or they may be intentional and controlled by humans to serve one of two purposes, treatment or bioterrorism. In other words, mutation in the molecules (genes) can lead to a change in behavior. This may lead to good or bad effect, e.g., recovery from illness or diseases that may severely affect the body causing disability or death. Once mutated outside the body, molecules may turn into harmful biological weapons of mass destruction. The latter process does not require sophisticated equipment and hence is extremely dangerous with the uprising global terrorism activities. Bioterrorism is therefore a serious concern for humanity. One could say that mutated biological agents outside the body once misused could be way more dangerous than mutated molecules within the body. In this chapter, we will elaborate on bioterrorism and its consequences; we will also propose a model to study social networks of genes within the body leading to the identification of disease biomarkers.