Du, P. et al. De novo design of an intercellular signaling toolbox for multi-channel cell–cell communication and biological computation. Nat. Commun. 11, 4226 (2020).

In this publication, Du and colleagues characterize quorum sensing systems and alternatives that can be used for inter-cell signaling. The systems are based on the synthesis and regulation by small molecules with different chemical structures, so that the set of parts remains orthogonal. Only the parts with the best orthogonality and dynamic range were chosen for this collection.

The authors optimized the synthesis rates and detection ranges of their systems so that they could be used for logic gate construction with multiple colonies sending signals at a time.