In the Cell Systems “Voices” article, Alex K. Shalek discusses the critical need to bridge the divide between individual cellular profiling and tissue-level human physiology. He highlights that while current methods excel at deconstructing tissues into their cellular components, there’s a significant gap in understanding how the collective activity of many cells drives emergent tissue behaviors. Shalek advocates for developing approaches to “reverse engineer” tissues, enabling controlled reassembly and perturbation of complex cellular systems, and proposes a “single-cell sociobiology” framework to codify this understanding. This perspective is vital as it outlines the future trajectory of single-cell biology, a field pioneered by the Shalek Lab. By focusing on cellular communities and their interactions, this research aims to unlock deeper insights into disease mechanisms and pave the way for manipulating cellular systems to improve human health.
Read his opinion, and that of other leading voices in the field, here.