Priority Programme “Heterotypic Cell-Cell Interactions in Epithelial Tissues (HetCCI)” (SPP 2493)
Deadline: 14. Oktober 2024
In March 2024, the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) established the Priority Programme “Heterotypic cell-cell interactions in epithelial tissues (HetCCI)” (SPP 2493). The programme is designed to run for six years. The present call invites proposals for the first three-year funding period.
The development and viability of complex organisms rely on barrier, absorption, secretion and sensory functions provided by the epithelial tissues of organs such as the skin, lungs or gut. In these tissues, epithelial cells interact closely with different cells of non-epithelial lineages (e.g. neurons, melanocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells) and with resident immune cells (e.g. macrophages, resident T cells). These interactions are critical for building and maintaining healthy organs with dynamic response states. However, while our understanding of homotypic signalling processes between epithelial cells is steadily growing, the molecular basis and functional consequences of such heterotypic cell-cell interactions remain poorly understood. Future research is needed to delineate how epithelial cells interact and communicate with neighbouring non-epithelial cell types to create, maintain and regenerate functional epithelial tissues.
This SPP aims to build an understanding of heterotypic cell-cell interactions in epithelial tissues from the molecular to the organismal level. Overarching questions address which molecular architecture and cellular machineries underlie heterotypic cell-cell interactions, how such interactions contribute to epithelial integrity, plasticity and pathology, and which signalling hierarchies and feedback mechanisms underlie epithelial:non-epithelial cell interactions. Projects will focus on direct physical cell-cell interactions, which may range from short-lived, dynamic contacts and protrusive adhesive interfaces to tunnelling nanotubes and long-lived adhesion junctions.
Projects within the programme will
- assess one (or more) of the three key focus areas: 1) epithelial-immune cell interactions, 2) epithelial-neuronal interactions, 3) epithelial-mesenchymal interactions,
- uncover the molecules and/or signals that underlie direct heterotypic cell-cell interactions in epithelial tissues, and
- reveal the developmental, physiological or pathological relevance of heterotypic communication.
The SPP invites investigators from various disciplines, such as cell and developmental biology, biophysics, mathematical modelling, genetics, structural biology and bio-engineering. Strong synergies should be created through the SPP-wide comparison of experimentally accessible model systems (synthetic biology, co-cultures of different cell types, organoids, tissue explants, animal models) and the integration of innovative methodologies, such as ultrastructural analyses, single-cell technologies, bio-engineering tools, multiplexed imaging and genetic labelling.
In order to maintain the focus of this SPP, proposals addressing the following are explicitly discouraged:
- merely homotypic cell-cell interactions between similar epithelial cells
- cell-matrix interactions
- epithelia-microbiome interactions
- metastatic processes
- secondary immune cell recruitment upon disease
- epithelial stem-cell centric projects
- purely descriptive studies without any clear mechanistic question
