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From molecular to modular cell biology

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Cellular functions, such as signal transmission, are carried out by ‘modules’ made up of many species of interacting molecules. Understanding how modules work has depended on combining phenomenological analysis with molecular studies. General principles that govern the structure and behaviour of modules may be discovered with help from synthetic sciences such as engineering and computer science, from stronger interactions between experiment and theory in cell biology, and from an appreciation of evolutionary constraints.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, 98109, Washington, USA

    Leland H. Hartwell

  2. Department of Molecular Biology (J.H.) and Department of Physics and Molecular Biology (S.L.), Princeton University, Princeton, 08542, New Jersey, USA

    John J. Hopfield & Stanislas Leibler

  3. Department of Physiology University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, 94143, California, USA

    Andrew W. Murray

Authors
  1. Leland H. Hartwell
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  2. John J. Hopfield
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  3. Stanislas Leibler
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  4. Andrew W. Murray
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Hartwell, L., Hopfield, J., Leibler, S. et al. From molecular to modular cell biology. Nature 402 (Suppl 6761), C47–C52 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/35011540

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