세포 간 네트워크 연구실

Cells in our body continuously interact through physical connections, and these connections play critical roles in organizing cells into functional tissues. Synapses between neurons have been studied intensively for their central role in the nervous system. Recent advances in bioimaging, however, have revealed another dimension of intercellular communication: non-canonical cellular connections at the nanoscale. We aim to uncover the principles by which these nanoscopic cell-to-cell connections organize physiological function across diverse cell types at the tissue level. Using the brain, a tissue of extreme cellular heterogeneity, as our model system, we characterize a newly discovered physical network formed by intercellular nanotubes. These structures, only hundreds of nanometers thick, transport materials and organelles between neurons and glia. We study how this non-canonical network integrates with the conventional synaptic connectome, and how both contribute to brain function during learning and in degenerative disease. Our approach combines cutting-edge high-resolution imaging and quantitative analysis with biophysical modeling and simulation. Genes have been called "selfish," yet cells sharing the same genome can be remarkably selfless. Cellular donation of organelles from healthy to damaged cells, even between heterotypic cells, suggests that multicellular organisms have evolved symbiotic cellular behaviors that remain poorly understood. We examine the significance of nanotube-mediated mitochondrial transfer outside the nervous system, which serves for systemic resource distribution in tissues, and its pathological alteration in degenerative diseases and cancers. Ultimately we test a bold hypothesis of a hidden 'connectome' of cells through nanotubes outside th