The Need for a Morphogenetic Code

We understand how regulation of gene expression is critical to development, growth, and health, but genes don’t control how cells build things. Cells behave. Cells have built every vestige of life that we see every day, but it is not known HOW precisely they do it. We understand very precisely how transcription and translation convert nucleic acids into peptides and proteins through execution of an elegant genetic code. Despite the fact that almost every cell contains information to code for an entire organism, no one has yet been able to turn that information into any recognizable structure. We need to understand why and how cells “behave” in certain ways to construct physical structure. Limb regeneration studies demonstrate that environments elicit certain cell behaviors that promote either wound healing or regeneration. We need to understand the morphogenetic code, hidden “in plain sight” in the extracellular milieu, that instructs cells to behave in defined patterns. We need a National Institute of Cellular Behavior and Morphogenesis.