Reaction–diffusion processes across layered media arise in several scientific domains such as pattern-forming E. coli on agar substrates, epidermal–mesenchymal coupling in development, and symmetry-breaking in cell polarization. We develop a modeling …
During development, cells gain positional information through the interpretation of dynamic morphogen gradients. A proposed mechanism for interpreting opposing morphogen gradients is mutual inhibition of downstream transcription factors, but …
Developing molecular communication platforms based on orthogonal communication channels is a crucial step towards engineering artificial multicellular systems. Here, we present a general and scalable platform entitled 'biomolecular …
The Turing patterning mechanism is believed to underly the formation of repetitive structures in development, such as zebrafish stripes and mammalian digits, but it has proved difficult to isolate the specific biochemical species responsible for …
Synthesizing a genetic network which generates stable Turing patterns is one of the great challenges of synthetic biology, but a significant obstacle is the disconnect between the mathematical theory and the biological reality. Current mathematical …
Bidirectional intercellular signaling is an essential feature of multicellular organisms, and the engineering of complex biological systems will require multiple pathways for intercellular signaling with minimal crosstalk. Natural quorum-sensing …
DNA self-assembly is a powerful technology for controlling matter at the nanometre to micron scale, with potential applications in high-precision organisation and positioning of molecular components. However, the ability to program DNA-only …
The rational design of synthetic cell populations with prescribed behaviours is a long-standing goal of synthetic biology, with the potential to greatly accelerate the development of biotechnological applications in areas ranging from medical …