Speaker
Description
Large-scale cell death is widely observed during embryonic development and various human pathological conditions. However, a systems-level understanding for how large-scale cell death emerges had been lacking. Harnessing time-lapse imaging, chemical/genetic perturbations and mathematical modeling, we show how metabolic stress quantitatively modulate cellular state for the emergence of redox multistability, allowing reactive oxygen species (ROS) to regenerate and propagate across millions of cells. Intriguingly, these cell death trigger waves (i.e., its initiation, direction and speed) can be oriented by the emergent cellular patterns in a cell population. These cellular patterns dictate cell density and cell-cell alignment that prime cells with heterogeneous sensitivity to metabolic stress. Our findings show how cell death propagation is directed in a cell population via self-organized cellular patterns, featuring how collective cellular behavior in tissues and organs may influence cellular vulnerability to metabolic stress.
