Lauren Anllo
East Carolina University, NC·Biology
Stem cells keep tissues healthy and repair them after injury, but they cannot do this alone. They depend on a niche, a small neighborhood of support cells that sits in a precise spot in the tissue and sends stem cells signals.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
- Topics
stem cell niche
stem cells
Drosophila
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Identify the signaling intermediaries that connect Slit and FGF signals from visceral muscle to expression of islet, a gene-regulating protein that directs niche cell movement, in the Drosophila embryonic testis.
- Define the downstream mechanisms through which islet controls niche cells by pursuing predicted islet target genes expressed in niche cells.
- Test whether polarization of F-actin, the cell's filament scaffold, directly drives niche assembly, using optogenetics to manipulate the cytoskeleton at precise times during live in vivo imaging.
- Define how org-1, the fly version of Tbx1 switched on by visceral muscle cues, regulates niche cell identity and morphogenesis, using Drosophila genetics.
- Uncover how a non-niche cell population within the gonad works with visceral muscle signals to guide where and how the testis niche assembles.
- Use laser ablation, cutting cells with a focused laser, to define the physical forces that drive niche formation and stem cell behavior.
More about the research
How a niche forms in the right place, with the right shape, is poorly understood. The main obstacle is that most niches form in the embryo, where tissue is hard to watch live. The lab studies this question in the testis niche of the fruit fly Drosophila, a genetically tractable model whose niche is conserved with other animals. Its earlier work established a method for live imaging of the forming niche inside the embryo, which revealed distinct steps in how the niche takes shape. Two related grants build on this to uncover the mechanisms behind each step.
Why it matters
A niche's position and architecture determine how well it maintains stem cells and renews tissue during injury or aging. Learning how niches are built could inform efforts to make stem cell replacement therapies more successful. It could also shed light on how cancer cells shape their own tumor microenvironments. Because the fly testis niche is a conserved model, the mechanisms found here may apply to many other stem-cell-based tissues.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
E. Jane Hubbard
New York University, NY·Biology
Identify the molecular mechanisms by which insulin/IGF-like signaling acts from other tissues to drive age-related decline of the one-cell germline stem cell niche in C. elegans.
Anna Sokac
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Biology
Test whether measurable features of transcription of five actin-regulator genes explain the even, synchronized timing of cellularization in Drosophila embryos, using live imaging of mRNAs down to single molecules.
Deborah J Andrew
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biology
Map the molecular steps by which Hedgehog signals through the GPCR Tre1 to guide migrating germ cells in Drosophila embryos, from receptor binding to actin polymerization.
The school
East Carolina University: 5 labs on PI Pages, $73M a year on research, 102 research doctorates a year.
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