Universal tool for tracking immune cell interactions in vivo
A new paper in Nature describes uLIPSTIC, a tool capable of laying the groundwork for a dynamic map tracking the physical interactions between different cells—the elusive cellular interactome. The authors have been perfecting the technology since 2018 and the latest iteration can in principle allow researchers to directly observe any cell-to-cell interaction in vivo.
"With uLIPSTIC we can ask how cells work together, how they communicate, and what messages they transfer," says the senior author. "That's where biology resides."
LIPSTIC, an innovative approach from the lab that involved labeling cellular structures that touch when two cells make fleeting, "kiss-and-run" contact before parting ways. The labels ensured that, if one cell "kissed" another, it would leave a mark akin to a lipstick, enabling easy identification and quantification of physical interactions between cells.
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https://lnkd.in/dMMaF5WP
I will check it out. Thanks