Synthetic Stem Cells Might Eventually Lead to Artificial Organs

July 2, 2015

(Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News) – Scientists at the University of Washington (UW) say they have engineered yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that can “talk” to one another, using the plant hormone auxin. In a paper (“Cell-cell communication in yeast using auxin biosynthesis and auxin responsive CRISPR transcription factors”) published in the American Chemical Society’s ACS Synthetic Biology journal, the researchers describe a novel cell-to-cell communication system that enables one yeast cell to regulate the expression of genes and influence the behavior of an entirely separate yeast cell.