Brian Camley (Physics & Astronomy, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences)

Andrew Ewald (Cell Biology, School of Medicine)

In developing organisms, groups of cells work together to sense chemical signals, sharing information to make measurements more precisely than any single cell can alone. We will characterize how groups of mammary cells process information by studying organoids made of a mixture of active cells (which always believe they see a signal) and normal cells. Over time, these organoids develop branches, as during normal mammary development. Our plan will be to use the location of the active cells to predict the location of the branches, inferring which cells are most important from experimental data. Understanding how the pattern of activity is translated into branching will allow us to better understand how chemical signals are integrated across a group of cells.