Functional Integration

Guglielmo Militello is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bordeaux and an affiliated member of the Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques (IHPST) in Paris and of the University Campus Biomedico in Rome. He holds a PhD in philosophy of biology from the University of the Basque Country, where he completed a dissertation on functional integration and biological individuality, with a particular focus on the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition. His research lies at the intersection of philosophy of biology and philosophy of medicine, with a particular interest in the conceptual foundations of biological individuality, the theory of major evolutionary transitions, and the ontological and ethical implications of contemporary cancer research. He has worked on topics such as anticancer immunotherapies, (cancer) stem cells, and the biological conditions enabling tumorigenesis.

• Dedication.- Foreword (Alvaro Moreno and Leonardo Bich).- Preface.- Acknowledgments.- Competing interests.- List of Figures.- About the Author.- Chapter 1. Functional integration in Life Sciences and Philosophy of Biology.- Chapter 2. Biological autonomy and functional integration.- Chapter 3. Biological regulation and functional integration.- Chapter 4. Eukaryogenesis and the appearance of a new individuality.- Chapter 5. Living one inside another: endosymbiosis, spatial constraints, and functional integration.- Chapter 6. Divide et impera - how cellular integration and control are established through the division of the intracellular space.- Chapter 7. Becoming an individual by controlling the movement of the parts.- Chapter 8. Functional integration and reproduction.- Chapter 9. Conclusions.- Index.