STEM CELLS

Interest in stem cells has seen dramatic growth in the past 20 years. This has been driven, in part, by the significant potential of stem cells in therapeutic applications. In addition, the recently developed in vivo assays allowing cell and lineage tracing and those based on high throughput analyses have provided novel insights on the features of stem cells and their cellular environment. Critical for medical applications is a detailed understanding of the in vivo biology of stem cells, their niches and local signals and their response to the external environment. This knowledge will complement the dissection of their molecular and epigenetic landscapes. Our research program will address the biology of stem cells in vertebrate and invertebrate model systems.