Uncovering the underlying physical mechanisms of biological systems via quantification of landscape and flux

Xu Li^{1, †,}, Chu Xiakun¹, Yan Zhiqiang¹, Zheng Xiliang¹, Zhang Kun¹, Zhang Feng¹, Yan Han¹, Wu Wei¹, Wang Jin^{1, 2, ‡,}

The discrete landscape for the cancer network with parametera= 0.5,b= 0.5,k= 1. Each node represents a specific cell state characterized by the qualitative expression levels of the corresponding marker genes. The nodes of blue, red, and green represent, respectively, the cell states evolving into the normal, cancer, and apoptosis states. The apoptosis pathways are represented by the black paths. The green and magenta paths denote, respectively, the pathways from the normal state to the cancer state and from the cancer state to the normal state.^[39]