Journal article
Incomplete Cell Sorting Creates Engineerable Structures with Long-Term Stability
Cell reports physical science, Vol.2(1), p.100305
01/20/2021
DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100305
Abstract
Adhesion-mediated cell sorting has long been considered an organizing principle in developmental biology. While most computational models have emphasized the dynamics of segregation to fully sorted structures, cell sorting can also generate a plethora of transient, incompletely sorted states. The timescale of such states in experimental systems is unclear: if they are long-lived, they can be harnessed by development or engineered in synthetic tissues. Here, we use experiments and computational modeling to demonstrate how such structures can be systematically designed by quantitative control of cell composition. By varying the number of highly adhesive and less adhesive cells in multicellular aggregates, we find the cell-type ratio and total cell count control pattern formation, with resulting structures maintained for several days. Our work takes a step toward mapping the design space of self-assembling structures in development and provides guidance to the emerging field of shape engineering with synthetic biology.
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Living cells can self-assemble into a range of 3-dimensional structuresStructures can be systematically designed by quantitatively controlling cell ratioIncomplete cell sorting can create stable structures that persist for days
With control over the 3D shape of biological structures, we could engineer advanced living materials and regenerate tissues. Tordoff et al. show how self-organizing structures made of living cells can be systematically designed by quantitatively varying cell-type ratio, and the resulting aggregates can persist over the course of days.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Incomplete Cell Sorting Creates Engineerable Structures with Long-Term Stability
- Creators
- Jesse Tordoff - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMatej Krajnc - Princeton UniversityNicholas Walczak - RTXMatthew Lima - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJacob Beal - RTXStanislav Shvartsman - Princeton UniversityRon Weiss - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Cell reports physical science, Vol.2(1), p.100305
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100305
- ISSN
- 2666-3864
- eISSN
- 2666-3864
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/20/2021
- Academic Unit
- Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984627227902771
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