Title
Synthetic morphogenesis:
Programming multi-cellular self-organization

Speaker
Dr. Satoshi Toda
(Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
University of California, San Francisco)

Date
2018.7.2（Mon） 16：00～17：00

Place
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems
(5-1 Higashiyama, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8787, Japan)
Large meeting room, 2F Bld. 3

Abstract
A common theme in the self-organization of multi-cellular tissues is the use of cell-cell signaling networks to induce morphological changes. We used the modular synNotch juxtacrine signaling platform to engineer artificial genetic programs in which specific cell-cell contacts induced changes in cadherin-based cell adhesion. Despite their simplicity, these minimal intercellular programs were sufficient to yield assemblies with hallmarks of natural developmental systems: robust self-organization into multi-domain structures, well-choreographed sequential assembly, cell type divergence, symmetry breaking, and the capacity for regeneration upon injury. The ability of these networks to drive complex structure formation illustrates the power of interlinking cell signaling with cell sorting: signal-induced spatial reorganization alters the local signals received by each cell, resulting in iterative cycles of cell fate branching. These results provide insights into the evolution of multi-cellularity and demonstrate the potential to engineer customized self-organizing tissues or materials.

*This seminar will be conducted in Japanese.

Contact
Quantitative Biology Group
Kazuhiro Aoki
e-mail: k-aoki_a_nibb.ac.jp
*Please replace the “_at_” with “@”.

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