Grant: Operating Grant

To harness the capacity of stem cells to produce many different cell types for therapy, we need to know how stem cells make the decision into which cell type to differentiate. It now appears that to a great extent stem cells play dice: randomness of fluctuations in gene activities contributes to the cell fate choice. However, the decision is also controlled by intricate genetic circuits. It is the interplay between chance and control that somehow orchestrates the production of various cells types in correct proportions. This project studies in detail the contribution of both in the example of blood stem cells that have to decide between becoming red or white blood cells. A variety of state-of-the art single-cell analysis technologies will be used to gain insight into the dynamics of cell fate decision. A practical outcome will be a better understanding of how we can more efficiently reprogram cells into a desired cell type for therapeutic purposes.