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4D Cellular Physiology

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Research Area / 4D Cellular Physiology

Understanding how cells work in tissues and collectively give rise to an organism’s physiological functions.

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Summary

By bridging the gap between systems-level phenomena studied by physiologists and cellular processes scrutinized by cell biologists, the 4D Cellular Physiology (4DCP) research area aims to bring physiology within reach of mechanistic cell biology.

4D Cellular Physiology (4DCP) seeks to unravel life’s greatest mystery: how thousands to trillions of cells self-organize, communicate, and cooperate to form organs and a wide variety of organisms capable of adapting to ever-changing environments.

Recognizing that cells are the basic unit of life, 4DCP aims to develop tools capable of peering into the secret lives of individual cells in native tissue environments, probing their structure and function, and use computational approaches to decipher the language by which cells communicate to enable emergent physiological functions.

Within these broader aspirations, the 4DCP research program at Janelia is currently focused on studying 1) how the nervous system mediates communication between the brain and body, 2) the formation of multicellular organisms in development and their ultimate decline during aging, and 3) the dynamics of metabolism, measured at a cellular and subcellular level, and its influence on tissue physiology. 

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News

Joining Janelia

7/18/24 | Alejandro Aguilera Castrejon

While getting his bachelor’s degree, Aguilera Castrejon discovered developmental biology and stem cell research and knew he had found his path, one that led him from Mexico to Israel and now to Ashburn, VA, where he is a new group leader in Janelia’s 4D Cellular Physiology research area.

News

10/19/20 | Janelia Sets Direction for its Second Research Area

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Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz

Head of 4D Cellular Physiology

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz leads the 4DCP research area. Her research on the machinery inside cells has led to novel insights about the dynamics of cells and their organelles. Lippincott-Schwartz has been a senior group leader at Janelia since 2016. 

Ron Vale

Co-Head of 4D Cellular Physiology

Ron Vale is the co-head of 4DCP. He studies the molecular motor proteins kinesin and dynein, which power the movement of membranes and chromosomes along microtubules inside cells, and explores the role of the cytoskeleton in cell division and cell shape. Vale has been at Janelia since 2020.

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Open Positions

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Conferences and Workshops

AI Revolution Meets 4D Cellular Physiology

This meeting will gather current and future leaders in cellular physiology and AI for a deep discussion at this inflection point of both fields. What problems are ripe for this emerging intersection of AI and cellular physiology? Where are the challenges? 

Application deadline: Nov 5, 2024 (11:59 p.m. ET)

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Past Workshops

Janelia held a series of workshops that explored open questions, exciting challenges, and barriers in need of new tools for understanding how cells give rise to tissue-level functions.

Visit the Janelia YouTube Channel for recordings of our past workshops.

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Labs