Enabling neighbour labelling: using synthetic biology to explore how cells influence their neighbours

2024/01/01 by Mattias Malaguti, Tamina Lebek, Guillaume Blin +1 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · #Cell Image Analysis Techniques #3D Printing in Biomedical Research #Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1242/dev.201955

openalex publication_date 2024/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/16

Abstract

Cell-cell interactions are central to development, but exploring how a change in any given cell relates to changes in the neighbour of that cell can be technically challenging. Here, we review recent developments in synthetic biology and image analysis that are helping overcome this problem. We highlight the opportunities presented by these advances and discuss opportunities and limitations in applying them to developmental model systems.

Citations

• The structure of the nervous system of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
• Programming self-organizing multicellular structures with synthetic cell-cell signaling
• Cellpose: a generalist algorithm for cellular segmentation
• Proximity labeling: an enzymatic tool for spatial biology
• Cellpose 2.0: how to train your own model

Cited by

• Cellular signalling protrusions enable dynamic distant contacts in spinal cord neurogenesis

Discussions

• Who are our (cellular) neighbours? @matt-mala.bsky.social is addressing this question now at #GenBio25, using characters living on a conceptual ‘Cell Street’. Learn more in his @dev-journal.bsky.socia [bsky, 4 points, 0 comments]

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