We are happy to share our perspective on studying life across length scales and the emergent properties as the scale increases. Recent studies at molecular and genomic scales have enriched our understanding of life’s most fundamental building block: the cell. However, bridging the gap between single-cell phenotypes and the emergent functions of tissues and organs remains a formidable challenge. The conceptual span from cells to tissues and organs is so large as to warrant intermediate stepping stones. Drawing inspiration from “network motifs”—discrete units of cell-level function that emerge from the interactions of a handful of genes or enzymes—we propose that similarly identifiable units of tissue-level function, which we term “mesoscale modules,” emerge from coordinated “interactions” among relatively small numbers of cells and their extracellular milieu. We outline several such modules and propose that a concerted effort to study them will deepen our foundational understanding of tissue and organ functions. By developing these mesoscale insights, we anticipate a more tractable and mechanistic approach to complex human conditions rooted in tissue- and organ-scale dysregulation, including developmental defects, cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune-related disorders, infectious disease, and aging. Please take a look at our new paper.