Grant: Project Grant

The human body is composed of billions of cells that largely have specialized properties, allowing them to sustain the normal function of the organs and tissues where they reside. Among these, stem cells are unique in that their divisions are important to regenerate the various tissues of our organs. Stem cells must divide in a way that enables tissue regeneration without loss of the stem cell pool, a process known as self-renewal. Proper regulation of stem cell division and self-renewal must be tightly controlled, because defects in these process can have deleterious consequences to an organ's function and thus be a primary cause of disease. For instance, stem cell division without self-renewal can lead to the atrophy of an organ or tissue, and thus compromise its function, while stimulating uncontrolled proliferation in stem cells can result in cancer. Understanding the fundamental aspects of stem cell division in an in vivo context is therefore crucial to identify the critical steps that govern their properties and devise novel strategies to exert control over their self-renewal. The objective of this project is to study how stem cells divide in vivo and understand what molecules control this process. I tackle this problem using a small nematode worm as experimental model, allowing me to use various methods that are not feasible in humans. The stem cells of this nematode worm divide very much like human cells and use essentially the same building blocks to go through the process, and therefore our findings in this model organism will greatly inform on human stem cells. As such, they help to guide the experimental design of approaches aimed at the development of novel therapeutics for cell proliferation-based diseases in humans.