How do cells message each other and how can we check their history of received messages?

26 April 2024

Pulin Li
Whitehead Institute, MIT

zoom recording

Abstract

Cells within a tissue frequently exchange information with one another through secreted signaling molecules that travel over tens to hundreds of mm. Being able to decipher the communicative relationship amongst cells is crucial for understanding how tissues are formed in embryos and how they perform physiological functions in adults. However, which cell can communicate with which other cell within a tissue is an actively regulated process. The physical distance between cells is one of the crucial factors. I will discuss our insights in how the distance by which signaling molecules travel can be regulated, based on our single-particle tracking measurements and multiscale diffusion model. I will also discuss our recent effort in computationally inferring what signals a cell has received using cell-autonomous information.