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SYNTHETIC CELLS

Talking across the membrane

Nature Chemistry volume 11, pages 18–20 (2019)Cite this article

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One goal of synthetic biologists is to develop artificial systems to help study biological processes. Now, cell communication and differentiation have been demonstrated using spatiotemporal patterns created in artificial multicellular compartments.

The growth of an embryo from a fertilized egg requires cells to differentiate into distinct types. This differentiation process continues as development proceeds, eventually producing numerous different types of cell, tissue and organ. While each cell in a multi-celled organism is a discrete physical compartment, carefully orchestrated communication between cells is necessary to achieve such differentiation1. And because cell–cell communication also enables cells to coordinate within structures that have already formed, it is central to the organization of cells into tissues, organs and whole organisms2.

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Fig. 1: A travelling pulse and differentiation of artificial cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Yi Li & Rebecca Schulman

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  1. Yi Li
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  2. Rebecca Schulman
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Correspondence to Rebecca Schulman.

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Li, Y., Schulman, R. Talking across the membrane. Nature Chem 11, 18–20 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-018-0192-7

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