Cells use sugars to communicate at the molecular level

The human body is made up of 30 to 40 million cells, a large and complex network of blood cells, neurons, and specialized cells that make up organs and tissues. Until now, figuring out which mechanisms control communication between them has proven a significant challenge for the field of cell biology. Research led by Virgil Percec in Penn's Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with the University's departments of cell and developmental biology and biology, and with 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 proteins. They found that sugar molecules play a key role in cellular communication, serving as the "channels" that cells and proteins use to talk to one another. They published their findings this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Ultimately, this research is about understanding how cell membranes function," says Percec. "People try to understand how human cells function, but it is very difficult to do. Everything in the cell is liquid-like, and that makes it difficult to analyze it by routine methods."