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The Power of Simplicity: Sea Urchin Embryos as in Vivo Developmental Models for Studying Complex Cell-to-cell Signaling Network Interactions
Published on: February 16, 2017
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An operational view of intercellular signaling pathways.
Yaron E Antebi1, Nagarajan Nandagopal1, Michael B Elowitz1,2
1Division of Biology and Biological Engineering and Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Current Opinion in Systems Biology
|November 7, 2017
Summary
Understanding how animal cells communicate requires knowing how intercellular signaling pathways process dynamic inputs. New approaches focus on reconstituting pathways in living cells to gain operational control over cellular behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Cell Biology
- Systems Biology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Animal cells utilize conserved intercellular signaling pathways for communication.
- Molecular mechanisms of these pathways are well-understood.
- An operational understanding for controlling cellular behavior is often lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review insights into the operational understanding of intercellular signaling pathways.
- To discuss challenges and opportunities in controlling cellular behaviors via signaling pathways.
- To bridge the gap between molecular knowledge and functional control of cell communication.
Main Methods:
- Reconstitution of signaling pathways in living cells.
- Analysis of dynamic cellular responses to stimuli.
- Development of new functional representations of pathway behavior.
Main Results:
- New approaches provide insights into how signaling pathways perceive dynamic input features.
- Understanding how pathways process inputs to control downstream processes is advancing.
- Functional representations are aiding in the operational understanding of cell signaling.
Conclusions:
- Operational understanding of signaling pathways is crucial for rationally controlling cellular behaviors.
- Reconstituting pathways and analyzing dynamic responses offers a promising direction.
- Further research is needed to overcome challenges and exploit opportunities in this field.
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