Plenary Lecture
Electromagnetic Cell Communication
Dr. Daniel Fels
Institute of Botany
University of Basel
Switzerland
E-mail: daniel.fels@unibas.ch
Abstract: The talk will be presented in three parts. First, a short review about the history of discovering electrostatic and electrodynamic cell communication. Second, a short summary about described effects of external electromagnetic radiation on health. Third, and as the main part, results from experiments with the protozoan Paramecium caudatum, describing effects due to endogenously generated physical signals between cell populations that are chemically separated from but across glass or quartz barriers mutually exposed to each other.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Dr. Daniel Fels studied organismic biology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he focused in the group of Prof. Steven C. Stearns on evolutionary biology. He received his Ph.D. degree regarding host-parasite interactions with Professor Dieter Ebert at the Zoological Institute of the University of Basel, Switzerland (2003) and had postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Professor Jacob Koella and Dr. Oliver Kaltz (CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France). His primary field was evolutionary biology with research emphasis on behaviour and later host parasite interaction and transmission ecology. His works were published in Oikos, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Archives of Hydrobiology and Parasitology. In 2006, he entered the developing field of cell electrostatics and electrodynamics with focus on physical signalling among cells. His independent research (performed in the laboratories of the former Swiss Tropical Institute and the CNRS) on electromagnetic signalling between cells was published in PLoS ONE (2009) and Axiomathes (2012). Since 2012 he is Guest Scientist at the Institute of Botany, University of Basel. There he studied also cross-species effects published in the Journal of Biophysics (2016). In 2015, the eBook “Fields of the Cell” was published open-access (eds.: Fels Cifra, Scholkmann; Research Signpost). Currently he resubmitted a research article on cell dynamics and electromagnetic signalling regarding regulation of cell populations (i.e. quorum sensing) to Scientific Reports. His latest contribution regards an invitation for a special issue (in process) in the journal Biology about enlarging the evolutionary theory. Fels is lately performing experiments on decision making processes in cells and effects of mortality. Experiments with optical fibers are intended to deliver direct evidence for optical cell communication.