Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 24, 2026

Tissue Engineering: Construction of a Multicellular 3D Scaffold for the Delivery of Layered Cell Sheets
Published on: October 3, 2014
Engineering cell-cell communication networks: programming multicellular behaviors
Satoshi Toda1, Nicholas W Frankel1, Wendell A Lim1
1Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
Abstract:
Cell-cell communication governs the biological behaviors of multicellular populations such as developmental and immunological systems. Thanks to intense genetic analytical studies, the molecular components of cell-cell communication pathways have been well identified. We also have been developing synthetic biology tools to control cellular sensing and response systems that enable engineering of new cell-cell communication with design-based regulatory features. Recently, using these molecular backgrounds, synthetic cellular networks have been built and tested to understand the basic principles of multicellular biological behaviors. These approaches will provide new capabilities to control and program desired biological behaviors with engineered cell-cell communication to apply them toward cell-based therapeutics.
Related Concept Videos
Communication
Communication
What is Cell Signaling?
What is Behavior?
Protein Networks
These interactions can be represented through maps depicting protein-protein interaction networks, represented as nodes and edges. Nodes are circles that are representative of a protein,...
What are Cells?
Basic Characteristics of Cells
A living cell has a plasma membrane, a bilayer of lipids that separates the aqueous solution inside the cell called the cytoplasm from the outside environment.
Furthermore, a living cell possesses genetic information...

