WILMINGTON, DE — Researchers at ChristianaCare’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute and the University of Delaware have uncovered what could be a biological “instruction manual” for how human tissues maintain their structure, even as billions of cells die and regenerate each day.
In a study published last week in Biology of the Cell, the team identified five key biological rules that appear to guide how tissues like the colon stay intact despite constant cellular turnover. The findings are the culmination of more than 15 years of collaboration between cancer biologists and mathematicians, using computer simulations to decode the dynamics of living tissues.
Their work reveals that five principles—timing of cell division, sequence of division, direction of movement, number of divisions, and cell lifespan—are likely enough to explain how complex tissue structures remain stable over time.
Researchers used mathematical modeling to simulate cellular activity in the colon, a tissue that renews itself every few days. The models consistently recreated real-world patterns seen in healthy tissue, suggesting that the five-rule system accurately mirrors biological processes.
The implications could be far-reaching. If this “tissue code” applies to other organs—such as the brain, liver, or skin—it could reshape how scientists understand everything from wound healing and developmental disorders to cancer progression.
“This level of organization in living tissue doesn’t happen by accident,” said Dr. Bruce Boman, senior research scientist at ChristianaCare and faculty at the University of Delaware. “What we’re uncovering is a fundamental set of rules that likely govern how cells behave and how tissues maintain their identity over time.”
The discovery could also bolster efforts such as the Human Cell Atlas project, which aims to map every cell type in the human body. While that project focuses on identifying and cataloging cells, the new research offers a framework for understanding how those cells interact dynamically over time.
Because traditional biological tools can’t track every single cell in real time, the team turned to computational models. This approach is gaining traction across the scientific community and aligns with national initiatives like the National Science Foundation’s “Rules of Life” program, which encourages the discovery of governing principles in biological systems.
Next, the researchers plan to validate their models through laboratory experiments and expand the work into cancer biology, where disruptions to normal tissue architecture often precede disease.
Backed by funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and regional science foundations, this work represents a significant step toward linking mathematical principles with biological structure—and could open new doors in understanding, predicting, and eventually repairing human tissue.
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