title: A synthetic mammalian network to compute population borders based on engineered reciprocal cell-cell communication.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Multicellular organisms depend on the exchange of information between specialized cells. This communication is often difficult to decipher in its native context, but synthetic biology provides tools to engineer well-defined systems that allow the convenient study and manipulation of intercellular communication networks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here, we present the first mammalian synthetic network for reciprocal cell-cell communication to compute the border between a sender/receiver and a processing cell population. The two populations communicate via L-tryptophan and interleukin-4 to highlight the population border by the production of a fluorescent protein. The sharpness of that visualized edge can be adjusted by modulating key parameters of the network.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We anticipate that this network will on the one hand be a useful tool to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms of tissue formation in nature and will on the other hand contribute to our ability to engineer artificial tissues.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kolar
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany.|Present address: DMK GmbH, Head of Quality Assurance, DE-26939, Ovelgönne, Germany.
authors.forename: Hanna M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wischhusen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany.|Present address: Novartis Pharma AG, Biologics Process R&D, CH-4002, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany.|Present address: Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmunity (RIA) iMED, AstraZeneca, SE-431 83, Mölndal, Sweden.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karlsson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany.|BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany. matias.zurbriggen@uni-duesseldorf.de.|Present address: Institute of Synthetic Biology and Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), University of Düsseldorf, DE-40225, Düsseldorf, Germany. matias.zurbriggen@uni-duesseldorf.de.
authors.forename: Matias D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Zurbriggen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D060846:Cell Engineering; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000378:metabolism; D008322:Mammals / Q000378:metabolism*; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D008954:Models, Biological; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015847:Interleukin-4; D014364:Tryptophan