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Unraveling cell-to-cell signaling networks with chemical biology

Cell-to-cell signaling networks, although poorly understood, guide tissue development, regulate tissue function and may become dysregulated in disease. Chemical biologists can develop the next generation of tools to untangle these complex and dynamic networks of interacting cells.

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Figure 1: Cell-to-cell signaling networks in epithelial tissues and the immune system.

MARINA CORRAL SPENCE/SPRINGER NATURE

Figure 2: Chemical biology tools to image, perturb and engineer intracellular and intercellular signaling networks.

MARINA CORRAL SPENCE/SPRINGER NATURE

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Correspondence to Zev J Gartner, Jennifer A Prescher or Luke D Lavis.

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Z.J.G. holds stock in a company that has licensed patents on DNA-Programmed Assembly of Cells from the University of California, San Francisco.

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Gartner, Z., Prescher, J. & Lavis, L. Unraveling cell-to-cell signaling networks with chemical biology. Nat Chem Biol 13, 564–568 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2391

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