From Flocks to Swarms: Rewriting the Rules of Collective Cell Migration
- 1Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
Abstract
From flocking birds to swarming insects, collective motion enables groups to accomplish tasks beyond the capabilities of individuals. These behaviors emerge from local interactions among group members, but the interaction rules that organize collectives at the cellular scale remain poorly understood, in part because they are difficult to manipulate experimentally. Here we develop a cell-machine interface that enables us to rewrite the rules of collective migration. Cell-cell interaction rules are specified in software and implemented in living cells through real-time computer vision and closed-loop optogenetic control. Using a single engineered cell line, we program cells to self-organize into flocks, to propagate regenerative signal relays that recapitulate the interaction logic of immune-cell swarms, and to collectively navigate guidance cues that individual cells cannot. Our work shows that altering simple rules of cell-cell interaction is sufficient to generate new emergent collective capabilities. This approach provides an experimental framework for discovering the organizational principles of multicellular coordination and designing synthetic collectives with capabilities beyond those of their individual members.
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BibTeX
@misc{martin2026from,
title = {{From Flocks to Swarms: Rewriting the Rules of Collective Cell Migration}},
author = {N. R. Martin and N. Brown and R. Gaidarov and I. Wischik and A. Amir and A. Gopinathan and O. D. Weiner},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.29.753501},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.753501v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - From Flocks to Swarms: Rewriting the Rules of Collective Cell Migration
AU - N. R. Martin
AU - N. Brown
AU - R. Gaidarov
AU - I. Wischik
AU - A. Amir
AU - A. Gopinathan
AU - O. D. Weiner
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/29
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.29.753501
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.753501v1
AB - From flocking birds to swarming insects, collective motion enables groups to accomplish tasks beyond the capabilities of individuals. These behaviors emerge from local interactions among group members, but the interaction rules that organize collectives at the cellular scale remain poorly understood, in part because they are difficult to manipulate experimentally. Here we develop a cell-machine interface that enables us to rewrite the rules of collective migration. Cell-cell interaction rules are specified in software and implemented in living cells through real-time computer vision and closed-loop optogenetic control. Using a single engineered cell line, we program cells to self-organize into flocks, to propagate regenerative signal relays that recapitulate the interaction logic of immune-cell swarms, and to collectively navigate guidance cues that individual cells cannot. Our work shows that altering simple rules of cell-cell interaction is sufficient to generate new emergent collective capabilities. This approach provides an experimental framework for discovering the organizational principles of multicellular coordination and designing synthetic collectives with capabilities beyond those of their individual members.
ER -