Review
Developmental Biology
Meritxell Huch, Mina Gouti
Summary: The second meeting on 'Engineering Multicellular Systems' took place in Barcelona in June 2022, organized by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia. Stem cell and systems biologists, physicists and engineers from all over the world gathered to discuss recent breakthroughs in organoid technologies, engineering and mechanobiology, and their applications in tissue engineering, disease modeling, and drug screening. The meeting, organized with sustainability in mind, included an ethics session and an outreach public activity.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
WonJin Kim, Hyeongjin Lee, Eun Ji Roh, Seong Bae An, In-Bo Han, Geun Hyung Kim
Summary: The bioprinted cell-laden construct consisting of collagen, beta-tricalcium phosphate, human adipose stem cells (hASCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was successfully used for bone tissue regeneration in spinal fusion. The construct exhibited strong angiogenic and osteogenic activities due to the synergistic crosstalk of the two cell types, leading to significantly higher new bone formation and angiogenesis in a mouse model of posterolateral lumbar spinal fusion. These findings suggest that biomimetic cell-laden constructs could potentially encourage effective spinal fusion by promoting bone tissue regeneration.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2022)
Review
Mechanics
Jean Carlos Serrano, Satish Kumar Gupta, Roger D. Kamm, Ming Guo
Summary: From intracellular protein signaling to embryonic symmetry-breaking, fluid transport plays a crucial role in driving biological events. Understanding the physical basis of fluid dynamics can be utilized to engineer complex multicellular systems and manipulate cellular functions. Examples include controlling intracellular fluid volume for cell differentiation and using microfluidic systems to generate vascularized organoids through spatial and temporal distribution of morphogens and fluid forces.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF FLUID MECHANICS, VOL 53
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Livnat Jerby-Arnon, Aviv Regev
Summary: DIALOGUE is a method that systematically deciphers the functional interactions of cells in tissues. It identifies coordinated cellular programs in different cell types, forming higher-order functional units at the tissue level. DIALOGUE also predicts disease outcomes and predisposition, and identifies risk genes for various diseases.
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biophysics
Yuehua Yang, Hongyuan Jiang
Summary: Oscillations and waves in living cellular systems are often attributed to mechanochemical feedbacks. However, this study reveals that osmotic shocks can trigger self-sustained cell oscillations and result in long-range waves. These waves propagate along the intercellular osmotic pressure gradient and their speed is proportional to the magnitude of intercellular water flows. Additionally, the waves exhibit characteristics of solitary waves. These findings predict a new mechanism of wave generation in living multicellular systems and suggest its relevance to a broad class of systems.
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Haiqian Yang, Adrian F. Pegoraro, Yulong Han, Wenhui Tang, Rohan Abeyaratne, Dapeng Bi, Ming Guo
Summary: Cells cooperate as groups to achieve structure and function at the tissue level, with transformations in material characteristics essential for vital processes. Configurational fingerprints and order parameters are developed to quantify system disorder, forming a complete and unique pair for structural disorder in multicellular systems. Evolution of these order parameters offers a way to map phase transitions in expanding cell monolayers and during embryogenesis and invasion of epithelial spheroids.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Gayatri J. Pahapale, Jiaxiang Tao, Milos Nikolic, Sammy Gao, Giuliano Scarcelli, Sean X. Sun, Lewis H. Romer, David H. Gracias
Summary: Precise spatial organization of multicellular structures plays a vital role in biological processes. This study uncovers a new mode of self-organization of endothelial cells guided by the combined effects of stiffness and geometry, independent of protein or chemical patterning.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Si Tang, Yuriy Pichugin, Katrin Hammerschmidt
Summary: Understanding the transition to multicellularity is of great interest in biology, but the ecological conditions driving such transitions are not well understood. In this study, a unicellular species of cyanobacteria, Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142, was found to exhibit a facultative life cycle with alternating unicellular and multicellular filaments. The switch between these morphologies was triggered by environmental factors such as salinity and population density, indicating the importance of environmental cues in determining the life cycle.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Patrick M. Boyle, Jinzhu Yu, Aleksandra Klimas, John C. Williams, Natalia A. Trayanova, Emilia Entcheva
Summary: Intercellular electrical coupling plays a crucial role in cellular communication, and OptoGap is a new contactless method for quantifying cell-cell coupling through selective illumination of non-excitable cells and optical sensing of excitable cell responses. Experimental validation in a two-dimensional setting shows the potential applicability of OptoGap to the integration of fibroblasts and non-transformed cardiomyocytes, while computational analysis confirms its sensitivity to cell-scale excitability.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Kevin S. Zhang, Ambika Nadkarni, Rajorshi Paul, Adrian M. Martin, Sindy K. Y. Tang
Summary: Microscale surgery has made significant advances in fundamental biology and engineering biological systems, but manual operations are labor-intensive and lack reproducibility. Microfluidics provides a powerful technology to control and manipulate cells and multicellular systems at the micro- and nanoscale with high precision. This review summarizes the physical and chemical mechanisms, design principles, applications, and implementations of microscale surgery in microfluidic systems. Existing challenges and opportunities are highlighted throughout the review.
Article
Oncology
Alejandro Riol, Javier Cervera, Michael Levin, Salvador Mafe
Summary: Electric potential patterns across tissues can influence transcription, proliferation, migration, and differentiation in cell systems. Understanding the origins of spatial domains of distinct potential and their relationship to ion channels and gap junctions is critical for evolutionary developmental biology and regenerative medicine. Modulating bioelectrical patterns externally can offer qualitative insights into the dynamics of cell system bioelectricity.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Guanyu Li, Ryan LeFebre, Alia Starman, Patrick Chappell, Andrew Mugler, Bo Sun
Summary: Coordinated responses to environmental stimuli are critical for multicellular organisms. In this study, the calcium dynamics of neuronal cells in response to cyclic ATP stimuli were investigated. It was found that neuronal cells self-organize into spatially decentralized and temporally stationary networks to support information transfer via gap junction channels. The connectivity of these networks is regulated by the temporal profile of the external stimuli.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Micha Sam Brickman Raredon, Junchen Yang, James Garritano, Meng Wang, Dan Kushnir, Jonas Christian Schupp, Taylor S. Adams, Allison M. Greaney, Katherine L. Leiby, Naftali Kaminski, Yuval Kluger, Andre Levchenko, Laura E. Niklason
Summary: Connectome is a software package for R that facilitates rapid calculation and interactive exploration of cell-cell signaling network topologies contained in single-cell RNA-sequencing data. It focuses on computational and graphical tools designed to analyze and explore cell-cell connectivity patterns.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Adam J. Stevens, Andrew R. Harris, Josiah Gerdts, Ki H. Kim, Coralie Trentesaux, Jonathan T. Ramirez, Wesley L. McKeithan, Faranak Fattahi, Ophir D. Klein, Daniel A. Fletcher, Wendell A. Lim
Summary: Cell adhesion molecules play a crucial role in various cellular processes, and their synthetic counterparts can be generated by combining extracellular interactions with intracellular domains. These synthetic molecules allow for customized cell-cell interactions with properties similar to native interactions. The intracellular domains determine the interface morphology and mechanics, while the extracellular interaction domains specify the connectivity between cells. This toolkit of synthetic cell adhesion molecules enables the assembly of multicellular architectures and the systematic remodeling of native tissues, providing insights into the evolution of different classes of cell-cell interfaces. Overall, these tools have significant implications for cell and tissue engineering and the study of multicellular organization.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Amos Zamir, Guanyu Li, Katelyn Chase, Robert Moskovitch, Bo Sun, Assaf Zaritsky
Summary: Multicellular synchronization is a widespread phenomenon in living systems, but how individual cells' noisy and heterogeneous behaviors are integrated towards multicellular synchronization remains unclear. In this study, the process of multicellular calcium synchronization in response to mechanical stimuli was investigated. The findings suggest that multicellular synchronization is established through the gradual enhancement of information spread and heterogeneity in the cells' communication properties.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Joseph Grimaldi, Cynthia H. Collins, Georges Belfort
BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS
(2016)
Article
Mechanics
Sandeep Chilukuri, Cynthia H. Collins, Patrick T. Underhill
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jasmine Shong, Yao-Ming Huang, Christopher Bystroff, Cynthia H. Collins
ACS CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
(2013)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Nicholas Marchand, Cynthia H. Collins
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING
(2013)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
J. Grimaldi, C. H. Collins, G. Belfort
BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS
(2014)
Article
Microbiology
Wooseong Kim, Farah K. Tengra, Jasmine Shong, Nicholas Marchand, Hon Kit Chan, Zachary Young, Ravindra C. Pangule, Macarena Parra, Jonathan S. Dordick, Joel L. Plawsky, Cynthia H. Collins
Article
Physics, Condensed Matter
Sandeep Chilukuri, Cynthia H. Collins, Patrick T. Underhill
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER
(2014)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Frederick K. Balagadde, Hao Song, Jun Ozaki, Cynthia H. Collins, Matthew Barnet, Frances H. Arnold, Stephen R. Quake, Lingchong You
MOLECULAR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
(2008)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wooseong Kim, Farah K. Tengra, Zachary Young, Jasmine Shong, Nicholas Marchand, Hon Kit Chan, Ravindra C. Pangule, Macarena Parra, Jonathan S. Dordick, Joel L. Plawsky, Cynthia H. Collins
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Peng Xu, Qin Gu, Wenya Wang, Lynn Wong, Adam G. W. Bower, Cynthia H. Collins, Mattheos A. G. Koffas
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2013)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jayamary Divya Ravichandar, Adam G. Bower, A. Agung Julius, Cynthia H. Collins
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2017)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Jasmine Shong, Cynthia H. Collins
ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
(2014)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Jasmine Shong, Cynthia H. Collins
ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
(2013)
Editorial Material
Biochemical Research Methods
Cynthia H. Collins
ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
(2014)
Review
Biochemical Research Methods
Pei-Ru Chen, Peng-Fei Xia
Summary: Carbon dioxide plays a crucial role in mitigating global climate change and supporting life on Earth. Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering offer a promising approach to enhance CO2 fixation by combining the advantages of autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms. This article reviews the current progress in constructing synthetic CO2 fixation pathways, discusses the underlying design principles and challenges, and provides insights into the future of carbon recycling through engineered synthetic carbon fixation pathways.
CURRENT OPINION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2024)