Genome wide expression profiling of angiogenic signaling and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

Genome wide DNA expression profiling coupled with antibody array experiments using endostatin to probe the angiogenic signaling network in human endothelial cells were performed. The results reveal constraints on the measuring process that are of a similar kind as those implied by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics as described by Werner Heisenberg. We describe this analogy and argue for its heuristic utility in the conceptualization of angiogenesis as an important step in tumor formation.