Researchers Eavesdrop on Cells' Biochemical Conversations
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Researchers eavesdrop on cellular conversations:
An interdisciplinary team of biologists and mathematicians at the University of California, Irvine has developed a new tool to help decipher the language cells use to communicate with one another.
In a paper published today in Nature Communications, the researchers introduce CellChat, a computational platform that enables the decoding of signaling molecules that transmit information and commands between the cells that come together to form biological tissues and even entire organs.
"To properly understand why cells do certain things, and to predict their future actions, we need to be able to listen to what they are saying to one another; mathematical and machine learning tools enable the translation of such messages," said co-senior author Qing Nie, UCI Chancellor's Professor of mathematics and developmental & cell biology.
"Just like in our world, where we are constantly bombarded with information, all cells experience a lot of molecular words coming at them simultaneously," added co-senior author Maksim Plikus, UCI professor of developmental & cell biology, "What they choose to do is dependent on this steady flow of molecular information and on what words and sentences are being heard the loudest."
[...] Beyond the purely fundamental research enterprise of interpreting these biological messages, Nie said CellChat can also be used to compare communication networks in different states of an organ, such as sickness and health. Calling it a "Google Translator for the lexicon of cells," Nie said one of tool's most significant capabilities is that it can be used to uncover molecular drivers in a broad spectrum of maladies including cancer and autoimmune disorders.
Journal Reference:
Suoqin Jin, Christian F. Guerrero-Juarez, Lihua Zhang, et al. Inference and analysis of cell-cell communication using CellChat [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21246-9)
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