RESEARCH

How are organ regeneration regulated?

Tissue repair and regeneration are fundamental features of life, and the capacity to replace damage tissues is widely distributed across animal phyla. Yet, the genetic pathways that mediate organ regeneration are poorly understood. The goal of our research program is to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms for organ and body regeneration.

We focus our work on a new model system, the flatworm planarian, which regenerates robustly and represents the sister-lineage to all other animals with bilateral symmetry, to address these questions.

To tackle these challenges, we are building and applying a suite of approaches including functional genomics, single-cell RNA-sequencing, gene perturbation and imaging to uncover the mechanisms of body regeneration in planarian. By developing tools to track and manipulate cells in different states, we seek principles by studying them in multiple tissues, and across species.

We are dedicated to discovering the common principles governing tissue and body regeneration, with the ultimate goal of guiding the development of therapies for regenerative medicine, human degenerative disease and cancer.