Advanced Research Fellowship: Linking the physical and biological sciences to study cell to cell interactions

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Cellular interactions are fundamental to all biological processes. Understanding of cell-cell interactions, with the ultimate vision of harnessing this new knowledge for future engineering of bioprocesses, crosses medical, process engineering and environmental disciplines. The observation of cell-cell interactions is not a new phenomenon. However, despite the prevalence and significance of cell-cell interaction in bio-engineering systems, little is understood about how the processes at the molecular level (i.e. the science approach) connect to macro scale characteristics (i.e. the engineering problem. In order to understand, and ultimately engineer and model the process of cell-cell interactions, a combined approach that concurrently addresses the key (and interdependent) (process) engineering, biological and biochemical questions surrounding cell-cell interactions is needed. The development of such an integrated framework is the core philosophy of this fellowship. With my expertise, and the opportunity of this fellowship, I am uniquely placed to bring skills from both the physical/chemical engineering and biological sciences to bear on this bio-engineering issue. A core strength of this fellowship, is my ability to combine biological '-omic' techniques with engineering and colloidal investigations to link biological and physical processes that govern cell to cell interactions Using model bacterial systems (E.coli and B.cereus), I will examine how external drivers (e.g. cell to cell communication) influence cell surface characteristics and ultimately cell to cell interaction. I will extend this study into the archaeal and eukaryotic systems to gain a more holistic view of cell to cell interactions. This fellowhsip is timely, as it will open up new research opportunities to establish international networks with research groups specialising in individual key aspects of cell-cell interactions. This will provide excellent opportunities to apply this integrated approach to new cellular systems. It is also timely because, with the continued development in the biological sciences in relating gene expression to protein function, it is now possible to start relating biological function with specific physical cell characteristics and engineering relevance. The knowledge developed in this fellowship will, as a result, provide the fundamental understanding necessary to unravel the interconnected engineering, biological and physical processes in studying cell to cell interactions, and ultimately lead to innovative ways to manage the processes.