Cell Communication Team
Team Leader: Dr Claus Jørgensen
Location: Chester Beatty Laboratories, London
Section: Section of Cell and Molecular Biology including the Cancer Research UK Tumour Cell Signalling Unit
The goal of the Cell Communication team is to understand how reciprocal signaling between different cells is processed to control cell-specific behaviour. Reciprocal signaling can be described as an iterative process of cell signaling where two or more cell-types exchanges signals in a consecutive manner to achieve coordinated adjustment to their behaviour.
Reciprocal signaling is frequently observed following contact-initiated signaling between two neighbouring cells and is utilized in several processes such as antigen presentation, axon guidance, establishment of epithelial polarity and during restriction of tissue boundaries. In addition, reciprocal signaling is also observed between epithelial cells and the surrounding stroma.
We want to determine how individual cells respond to alterations in the extracellular environment in a multicellular setting and how reciprocal signaling networks between cells can promote or inhibit the carcinogenic process. Alteration in the ability of cells to communicate through direct cell-cell interactions is frequently observed in the carcinogenic process. For example, transformed epithelial cells alter contacts with neighbouring cells to escape the primary site and metastasise. As such, we are interested in the regulatory mechanisms behind the establishment of cellular compartments and their maintenance through signals elicited by direct cell-cell contact.
To establish how signaling networks control specific cellular processes, we use approaches such as RNAi screening and quantitative mass spectrometry to perturb and measure the signaling events on a global level. Through data-integrative approaches we aim to develop models describing how signals are processes in a cell-specific manner. Our long-term goal is to understand how such signals are processed to achieve cell specific phenotypes in a multicellular environment and how these signaling networks are deregulated in diseases such as cancer.
In the Section of Cell and Molecular Biology including the Cancer Research UK Tumour Cell Signalling Unit
