Cell signaling in the 21st century

Approaches in cell signaling in the 21st century

Biochemical Journal themed collection, open for submissions until 30 June 2024

Cell signaling has traditionally been described as a process by which extracellular signals are sensed by extra- or intracellular receptors, and information relayed through intracellular signal transduction pathways. These pathways control a vast range of cellular processes, including modulation of enzyme and transporter activity, resulting in changes in transcription, metabolism, (epi)genetics and cell behaviour. Cell signaling is operational in pro- and eukaryotes, and in all taxa of the plant and animal kingdom, from unicellular to multicellular organisms. Critically, cell signaling governs tissue development and homeostasis and is often deregulated in disease, with cell signaling components being the molecular targets of most currently used medicines. 

However, the field of cell signaling has now moved beyond the study of the conserved types of ‘linear’ signal transduction pathway identified through genetic and biochemical approaches. Indeed, a more contemporary view considers cell signaling as a top-level, system that not only integrates extracellular but also homeostatic intracellular signals, such as those induced by gene deregulation. This broader view has been facilitated by an explosion in structural, multi-omics, chemical and modelling biology advances that have allowed researchers to discover previously unknown post-translational modifications, to monitor and quantify a huge range of modifications in protein, RNA and DNA. The availability of such multi-level information has led to challenges to data integration and understanding, ushering in new approaches for network analysis, systems biology and computational approaches to unlock how cell signaling really works. Therefore, a key remaining challenge is also how to translate these insights from cell-based studies to the tissue and organismal levels.

The themed collection ‘Cell signaling in the 21st Century’ aims to capture these new developments in cell signaling, and will therefore be very broad in scope. Other than reviews on fundamental signaling pathways, the collection will cover technological advances that help to understand signaling, and consider the following non-exhaustive list of topics: proteomics (kinase/substrate interactions – single cell proteomics), signaling dynamics (dynamic signal encoding and decoding, optogenetics), subcellular compartmentalisation in signaling, heterocellular signaling, signaling inhibitors and activators, allosteric modulators, advances in structural biology, computational approaches, spatio/temporal signaling and transcriptomics, systems biology approaches. 
This Biochemical Journal themed collection, will be Guest Edited by:

Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck, University College London, UK

Professor Patrick Eyers, University of Liverpool, UK

And the Biochemical Journal Editorial Board

We welcome you to submit your best original research papers, review articles and opinion pieces. Please contact the Editorial Office for any additional information.