12th DDc Lunch Retreat “Cellbots for therapy”

The objective is to harness human cell signaling and processes to design and create novel versatile cell systems that enable drug discovery and cell therapies.

The Neolithic revolution saw the transition from hunting and gathering to adapting living organisms to human needs. One scale down, the way we approach cells has so far been on the hunting and gathering stage, but like the fertile crescent, the Saxonian microcosmos now provides the potential for something completely new: to harness and domesticate cells to meet therapeutic needs, a farming revolution on a cellular scale.

We can read and write the genetic code and have commenced to understand its expression and ways to change it. Ours is a next generation approach to understand and rewrite its grammar as it refers to cell fates. This will allow us to create cellular crops with increased yield, new functions, and adapted to new environments.

The cluster will seek to understand the interplay between signaling and checkpoints for cell differentiation and function with a specific goal to redesign cells for therapy. To achieve this, the cluster will bring together acclaimed investigators from the Saxonian fertile crescent in Dresden and Leipzig in the areas of receptors signaling, structural biology, cellular models, gene editing and engineering, biosensors, artificial intelligence assisted receptor design, and automated cell production for the purpose of innovative and curative therapy.

We are looking for the old and, particularly the young, MacDonalds to join us on the farm and hope that you will find the time to engage in a discussion.