Mammalian cells engineered to self-organise into patterns before undergoing selective apoptosis.

What is it about?

During development, cells organise themselves spatially in the embryo, forming intricate patterns. The patterned cell populations can then undergo various changes such as differentiation or cell death, to allow the formation of complex structures and tissues. In this proof-of-concept experiment, we have engineered synthetic patterning and morphogenesis (exemplified here by selective apoptosis) in mammalian cells: a patterned population of cell could be selectively killed, leaving a cellular mesh of the surviving second population.

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