Multicellular organisms depend on physical cell–cell interactions to control physiological processes such as tissue formation, neurotransmission and immune response. These intercellular binding events can be both highly dynamic in their duration and complex in their composition, involving the participation of many different surface and intracellular biomolecules. Untangling the intricacy of these interactions and the signaling pathways they modulate has greatly improved insight into the biological processes that ensue upon cell–cell engagement and has led to the development of protein- and cell-based therapeutics. The importance of monitoring physical cell–cell interactions has inspired the development of several emerging approaches that effectively interrogate cell–cell interfaces with molecular-level detail. Specifically, the merging of chemistry- and biology-based technologies to deconstruct the complexity of cell–cell interactions has provided new avenues for understanding cell–cell interaction biology and opened opportunities for therapeutic development.

多细胞生物依靠物理细胞间相互作用来控制生理过程，例如组织形成、神经传递和免疫反应。这些细胞间结合事件的持续时间可以是高度动态的，并且它们的组成可以是复杂的，涉及许多不同的表面和细胞内生物分子的参与。解开这些相互作用的复杂性和它们调节的信号通路，极大地提高了对细胞-细胞结合后生物过程的洞察力，并导致了基于蛋白质和细胞的疗法的发展。监测物理细胞 - 细胞相互作用的重要性激发了几种新兴方法的发展，这些方法有效地询问细胞 - 细胞界面和分子水平的细节。具体来说，