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Success for physicians and biomedical researchers in repairing birth defects, inducing the regrowth of complex organs, normalizing cancer cells, and bioengineering novel living machines will hinge on first achieving a common goal: understanding how cells collaborate to build and rebuild large-scale anatomical structures. Over the past 20 years, researchers have made tremendous progress in identifying specific genes necessary for development, mostly by chronicling mutations or deletions of genes that lead to the onset of diseases and anatomical defects. But this information is just the tip of the iceberg. While the genome specifies the crucial “parts list” for individual cells, researchers have much to learn about the signaling events that coordinate the collaborative cellular processes to create and repair complex anatomies.
While the genome specifies the crucial “parts list” for individual cells, researchers have much to learn about the signaling events that coordinate the collaborative cellular processes ...
