How can Waddington-like landscapes facilitate insights beyond developmental biology?

Abstract

The Waddington landscape has offered an intuitive framework to conceptualize cell fate, grounded in our innate understanding of the physical rules that guide balls rolling down a hill. The hills and valleys of the landscape are molded by the cellular processor—the inner regulatory network of DNA, RNA, and proteins that govern cell “state” —and microenvironmental inputs are forces that guide cells in their probabilistic journey down the hill. While a powerful visual, it’s time we break out from the confines of this imaginary landscape.