Institute News
Scientists have long been fascinated by the complexity and adaptability of living organisms. Now, a groundbreaking project coordinated by Dr. Aneta Koseska at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior – caesar in Bonn aims to unveil an astonishing concept: that individual cells possess the ability to learn from their environment. This ambitious research initiative has been recognized with a prestigious ERC Synergy Grant of 11.2 million Euro to Dr. Koseska, Prof. Dietmar Schmucker, Humboldt Professor at the University of Bonn, Prof. Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, and Prof. Jeremy Gunawardena from Harvard Medical School in Boston, providing significant funding for this team to explore how single cells create internal representations of the external world.
"We believe that cells are not just passive entities executing pre-defined programs," says Dr. Koseska, head of the Lise Meitner Research Group Cellular Computations and Learning. "Instead, they actively process information, form internal models of their surroundings, and use these models to make context-dependent decisions – much like learning."
Diverse Model Organisms to Uncover Universal Mechanisms
The research will focus on a wide array of model organisms, including bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, unicellular eukaryotes like Paramecium and Tetrahymena, neuronal cell culture models, and neurons within the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. By studying these systems in a comparative manner, the team aims to identify generic molecular mechanisms through which single-cell learning is realized. "By examining such a diverse set of organisms, we hope to uncover fundamental principles that govern learning at the cellular level," explains Dr. Garcia-Ojalvo. "This comparative approach allows us to identify mechanisms that are conserved across different life forms, providing a unifying framework that links various areas and scales of biology."
From Single Cells to Complex Nervous Systems
One of the ambitious goals of the project is to understand how single neurons during the development of the brain learn to form, stabilize, or eliminate axonal branches. This process generates stereotyped synaptic patterns under highly variable conditions. By gaining insights into these mechanisms, the team aims to address fundamental biological questions about how learning and memory are established at the cellular level. "Understanding how neurons make precise connections is essential for deciphering the functioning of nervous systems," says Dr. Schmucker. "We want to uncover how individual neurons learn to form these connections despite the complexity and variability of their environment."
Formulating a Comprehensive Theory of Cellular Learning
The interdisciplinary team of leading scientists brought together by the project, titled "CeLEARN: Learning in Single Cells Through Dynamical Internal Representations," has a combined expertise that spans information theory, dynamical systems, cell biology and neuronal development. By integrating concepts from information theory to quantify predictive information with dynamical systems theory to explain how these internal models are realized, the team aims to formulate an integrated theory of learning in single cells. This theory will elucidate how cells form internal "memory" codebooks and utilize information from their changing environments to determine context-dependent responses in real time.
Challenging Traditional Views of Cellular Behavior
Traditionally, cells have been viewed as passive executors of genetic instructions, responding to environmental signals often in a predetermined manner. This research challenges that paradigm by proposing that cells actively generate internal representations of their complex environments. Such a shift in understanding could unify disparate areas of biology and open new avenues for research. "Providing a broader and generic definition of learning at the cellular level serves as a unifying framework that draws on the substantial knowledge acquired for animals in cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience" notes Dr. Gunawardena. "It links different scales of biology, from single-cell organisms to complex neuronal networks, and offers a basis for addressing fundamental biological questions."
Looking Ahead
The insights gained from the CeLEARN project are expected to have a profound impact on our understanding of how cells learn and adapt. By identifying the molecular mechanisms underlying single-cell learning, the research could pave the way for innovative therapies for diseases rooted in cellular dysfunction and contribute to the development of new technologies that harness the learning capabilities of cells.
About Dr. Aneta Koseska
Dr. Aneta Koseska is a pioneer in the field of natural computation. She has demonstrated how transient dynamics influence the ability of signaling networks in mammalian cells to respond dynamically to and integrate the information from external inputs. Her current work focuses on identifying fundamental dynamic principles of biochemical computations and learning in single cells and single-cell organisms.
ERC Synergy Grants
The European Research Council (ERC), set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organization for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe in 4 different grant schemes. The ERC Synergy Grant is aimed at a group of two to maximum four Principal Investigators working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. In 2024, 56 out of 540 evaluated proposals have been selected for funding. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe program.
Click here for the press release of Bonn University
Cells acquire information from the temporal distribution of chemical signals in their environment, encode it into patterns of molecular activities or abundances, from which they extract predictive information to guide their behavior.
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