[SS02] Biophysics of cell and developmental biology

[SS02-03] Programming multicellular patterns and dynamics with synthetic cell-cell communication

*Satoshi Toda¹ (1. Osaka Univ. (Japan))

Keywords:

Synthetic biology,Cell-cell communication,Pattern formation

During tissue development, cells communicate with each other using various molecules to control cell behaviors and organize complex multicellular structures. Tissue patterns emerge as a collaboration between cell-cell signaling and responsive cell behaviors, but the mechanisms of how cells control multicellular patterns and dynamics precisely under biological fluctuations remain unclear. To explore such mechanisms, we have been developing an in vitro platform to design new cell-cell communication rules and test multicellular behaviors there. Recently, we have converted a fluorescent protein GFP into an intercellular signaling molecule and designed cell-cell communication based on the sensing and responding to GFP. Applying this system to 3D spheroid culture, we have recently explored morphogen-based patterning mechanisms and reconstructed a robust patterning process by the interplay of diffusible signaling and cell adhesion. In this talk, I will introduce our synthetic biology technologies to engineer cell-cell communication and discuss the functions of basic cell-cell communication rules to organize multicellular patterns and dynamics.