Human body is made up of 30 to 40 million cells ,a large and complex network of blood cells ,neurons,and specialised cells that makeup organs and tissues.Until now ,figuring out which mechanism controls communication between them has proven a significant challenge for the field of biology.
Research led by Virgil Percec in Penn’s department of chemistry,in collaboration with university’s department of cell and developmental biology and with the Temple and Aachen universities, provides a new tool to study synthetic cells in incredible detail.Percec and his group demonstrated the value of their method by looking at how a cell’s structure dictates its ability to communicate and interact with other cells and protein.
