Progress and limitations in engineering cellular adhesion for research and therapeutics.

🤖 Plain-English Summary

Intercellular interactions form the cornerstone of multicellular biology. Next, we propose applications for engineered CAMs in immunology, developmental biology, tissue engineering, and neuroscience.

🔑 Key Findings

• Despite advances in protein engineering, researchers artificially directing physical cell interactions still rely on endogenous cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) alongside off-target interactions and unintended signaling.
• Recently, methods for directing cellular interactions have been developed utilizing programmable domains such as coiled coils (CCs), nanobody-antigen, and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA).
• We first discuss desirable molecular- and systems-level properties in engineered CAMs, using the helixCAM platform as a benchmark.

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