Our Research: Leveraging extreme biology for discovery
Transient Regeneration-Activated Cell States (TRACS)
Our previous work used a whole animal single cell sequencing strategy to identify three tissues that significantly alter their transcriptional output during planarian regeneration. In the muscle, a subset of anterior facing cells activate genes important for patterning and stem cell proliferation near the wound. In the epidermis, two different cell types express genes important for wound healing and stem cell maintenance. And finally, in the intestine, basal outer cells express genes important for stem cell proliferation and enterocytes express genes important for tissue remodeling. Importantly, these wound-induced cellular states are activated independent of stem cell proliferation. We named them Transient Regeneration-Activated Cell States (TRACS). Future work will determine what signaling pathways and cell types are regulated by TRACS and what role TRACS play in regeneration and repair of other types of injuries.
Integration of animal health, the environment, and behavior
Planarian flatworms need to decide when to produce clonal progeny by asexual reproduction (fission). Fission rates are dependent on nutrition, size, environmental cues like temperature and mechanical forces, and the underlying regenerative capacity of the animal. We are interested in discovering how the animal senses the optimal conditions for asexual reproduction and translates that stimuli into a behavioral output. How do diverse organ systems across the animal communicate with the central nervous system to ensure that asexual reproduction is successful?