Research

Our focus is the molecular and cellular attributes of mammalian stem cells.

Stem cells are defined by the ability to produce both identical daughter cells (self-renewal) and progeny with more restricted fates (commitment and differentiation). These dual capacities of stem cells contribute to growth and diversification during development and sustain homeostasis and repair processes throughout adult life. They also provide a resource for regenerative medicine. Elucidation of the mechanisms that govern stem cell behaviour is therefore of fundamental significance in cell, developmental and organismal biology, and the capabilities arising from such knowledge can be anticipated to have major biomedical applications.

Stem cells have now been identified and rudimentarily characterised in various mammalian tissues while pluripotent stem cells have been derived from early embryos and more recently by direct reprogramming of differentiated cells. These developments have exciting prospects of biomedical applications in cellular disease modelling, pharmaceutical screening, and regenerative medicine. However, the critical scientific challenge remains to elucidate the cellular and molecular control processes that govern stem cells. Only then will we be able to take full command of their capacities for expansion, differentiation and repair.

Our research groups study embryonic, foetal and adult stem cells. With the long-term goal of biomedical translation our research groups study primarily mammalian stem cells investigating their fundamental properties and targeting critical issues.