# Multiscale coordination of planar cell polarity

> **NIH NIH R01** · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $175,509

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Cells have a remarkable capacity to self-assemble into organ-like structures in vitro. However,
current in vitro-derived organs lack proper size and higher-order patterning, features that require
organism-level information not present in a dish. Notably, the collective polarization and
unidirectional alignment of cells across a tissue, a phenomenon known as planar cell polarity
(PCP), is lacking in vitro organs, yet is essential for proper organ formation and function. Thus, to
fulfill the promise of tissue engineering to generate functional organs in vitro we must understand
how cells establish long-range collective polarization.
 Our lab established the murine skin as a model system to investigate the multiscale
coordination of PCP in an expansive and regenerative tissue. By developing methods to perform
ex vivo culturing, long-term live imaging, biophysical perturbations, and organotypic reconstitution
of the epidermis, we have made key discoveries about PCP establishment at the tissue, cellular
and molecular scales. The long-term goal of this work is to build on these previous discoveries
and technological developments to develop a fully-fledged research program aimed at
understanding the angstrom-scale molecular interactions that ultimately build organism-scale
tissue organization in the skin epidermis. Successful completion of the aims laid out in this NIAMS
STAR award proposal will bring us one step closer to this vision, by defining how oligomeric
clustering interactions drive asymmetric partitioning of PCP complexes to establish cellular
polarity. Using technical innovations to perform live and super-resolution imaging of
endogenously-tagged PCP proteins, and to spatiotemporally control PCP protein clustering with
light-sensitive oligomerization modules, this work will provide fundamental new insights into the
multiscale coordination of PCP.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10520256
- **Project number:** 3R01AR066070-08S2
- **Recipient organization:** PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Danelle N Devenport
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $175,509
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2015-04-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10520256

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10520256, Multiscale coordination of planar cell polarity (3R01AR066070-08S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10520256. Licensed CC0.

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