Events

KLI Colloquia are invited research talks of about an hour followed by 30 min discussion. The talks are held in English, open to the public, and offered in hybrid format. 

 

Fall-Winter 2025-2026 KLI Colloquium Series

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5881861923?omn=85945744831
Meeting ID: 588 186 1923

 

25 Sept 2025 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

A Dynamic Canvas Model of Butterfly and Moth Color Patterns

Richard Gawne (Nevada State Museum)

 

14 Oct 2025 (Tues) 3-4:30 PM CET

Vienna, the Laboratory of Modernity

Richard Cockett (The Economist)

 

23 Oct 2025 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

How Darwinian is Darwinian Enough? The Case of Evolution and the Origins of Life

Ludo Schoenmakers (KLI)

 

6 Nov (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Common Knowledge Considered as Cause and Effect of Behavioral Modernity

Ronald Planer (University of Wollongong)

 

20 Nov (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Rates of Evolution, Time Scaling, and the Decoupling of Micro- and Macroevolution

Thomas Hansen (University of Oslo)

 

4 Dec (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Chance, Necessity, and the Evolution of Evolvability

Cristina Villegas (KLI)

 

8 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Embodied Rationality: Normative and Evolutionary Foundations

Enrico Petracca (KLI)

 

15 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

On Experimental Models of Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Novelty

Patricia Beldade (Lisbon University)

 

29 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

O Theory Where Art Thou? The Changing Role of Theory in Theoretical Biology in the 20th Century and Beyond

Jan Baedke (Ruhr University Bochum)

Event Details

Kate MacCord & Lucie Laplane
KLI Colloquia
From Stemness Identity in Cancers to Germline Identity in Metazoans
Kate MACCORD (Marine Biol. Lab, Woods Hole) & Lucie LAPLANE (Université Paris 1)
2019-12-03 17:00 - 2019-12-03 18:30
KLI
Organized by KLI

Topic description / abstract:

Stem cells regroup a diversity of cells raising the question of what it is exactly that make them be stem cells. To address this question, we will analyse stemness, the defining properties of stem cells. We will first show that stemness can be four different types of property (a categorical, a dispositional, a relational, or a systemic property) depending on the stem cell type. Then we will show how this philosophical characterization of stemness matters for science and medicine with the concrete example of cancer treatment.
In the second part of our paired talk, we apply Lucie’s ontology of stemness to the problem of germline identity in Metazoans in order to address the question: how does a cell become a germ cell? We begin with an overview of how germline identity and specification are conceived of within metazoans, and explore the application of the stemness ontology through the example of C. elegans.
 
Biographical note:
 
Lucie Laplane is permanent researcher at CNRS, at the Institut d’Histoire et philosophie des Science et des techniques (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne). She also works in a unit of biology (“Normal and Malignant Hematopoiesis”) at Gustave Roussy Cancer Center. She is a philosopher, with a background in biology (Master 2 in Stem Cell Biology). She works on stem cells and cancer, in particular on the concepts of cancer stem cells, clonal evolution, and tumor microenvironment.
 

Kate Maccord is the Program Administrator and McDonnell Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole (MA) where she runs the McDonnell Initiative, which brings historians and philosophers of science into collaboration with life scientists in order to transform the research of both fields. Kate’s research in history and philosophy of science aims to uncover historically entrenched assumptions in current science and explore the repercussions of these assumptions. Her goal is to use history and philosophy of science to transform and accelerate scientific research. Kate focuses especially on germline research and human genome editing.