Artificial cells reveal how living ones take shape
Using simple artificial cells, a research group led by Makito Miyazaki of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) in Japan has uncovered fundamental physical principles that govern how living cells change their shape.
Using simple artificial cells, a research group led by Makito Miyazaki of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) in Japan has uncovered fundamental physical principles that govern how living cells change their shape.
The short version
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- Cells constantly change shape as they move, divide and assemble into tissues during development.
- Although these changes in shape are essential for life, how they happen remains largely unknown because living cells contain thousands of molecules that act simultaneously.
What happened
They combined this artificial cell system with large-scale computer simulations and theoretical analysis to link molecular interactions within the actin cytoskeleton to changes in cell shape. The artificial cells allowed them to investigate how the cell membrane changes shape in a way that is impossible in living cells, where the complexity of biological processes often masks the underlying physical mechanisms.
Why it matters
The system itself is an important technological advance, providing a minimal, quantitatively controllable way to study cellular morphogenesis.
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