Cell Signaling

Think your cells are just simple building blocks, unconscious and static as bricks in a wall? If so, think again! Cells can detect what's going on around them, and they can respond in real time to cues from their neighbors and environment. At this very moment, your cells are sending and receiving millions of messages in the form of chemical signaling molecules!

In this article, we'll examine the basic principles of how cells communicate with one another. We'll first look at how cell-cell signaling works, then consider different kinds of short- and long-range signaling that happen in our bodies.