Recognizing scientific excellence in the biology of cell adhesion

Well, why does our skin look so smooth on the surface? How do skin cells adhere to each other and the underlying connective tissue to resist wound and bruise? How do two 'unlike' or 'like' cells live side-by-side? How are muscles and tendons glued to the bones? How do endothelial and epithelial cells are separated from each other? What mechanisms divide astrocytes, neurons, and the endothelial cells that make up the neurovascular unit? The answer is "cell adhesion", which is because of the characteristic properties of proteins and molecules that act like 'glue' or 'sticky molecules'. If cells or tissues do not hold each other, like in blistering skin in which something as gentle as a human touch can cause the skin to blister and peel away, inviting fatal infection and wound that may never heal. Suffice to say, the chances of survival will be somewhat diminished.In the late 1970's two ideas were put forward. First, the chemoaffinity hypothesis proposed that cell-cell contacts are mediated by unique set of cell adhesion molecules presented by adjacent cells. Second, adhesion molecules are limited, but their affinity could switch from low to high and vice versa. Soon afterwards, several important cell adhesion molecules were discovered and described including the cadherins, neuronal cell adhesion molecules (NCAM), extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules, proteoglycans, the immunoglobulin cell adhesion molecules, junctional adhesion molecules (JAMs), connexins, and selectins. Those ideas are very much alive and many cell adhesion molecules discovered recently are being tested with stringent criteria with better technologies today.There may not be a unifying answer to that question. In one of the landmark articles, Dr. Masatoshi Takeichi [Fig. 1A] described calcium-dependent and -independent mechanisms of cell adhesion [1]. Cell-aggregation assays of disaggregated tissue and cells provided indication that the cadherins promote 'homophilic' interactions, a process that requi