SCSS-IMB Joint Seminar
Seminar by
Roel NUSSE
Howard Hughes Institute
9 November 2017, 16:00-18:00.
Matrix L2M, Aspiration Theatrette
Seminar by
Roel NUSSE
Howard Hughes Institute
9 November 2017, 16:00-18:00.
Matrix L2M, Aspiration Theatrette
For more information about the programme please scroll to the sections below.
Admission is FREE and event is open to public but registration is required.
Seats are limited!
Seats are limited!
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Event Details
Day: 9 November 2017 Time: 16:00 -18:00 Venue: Aspiration Theatrette L2M, Matrix, Biopolis 30 Biopolis Street Singapore 138671 |
Location Map
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PROGRAMME
16:00 – 17:00 Wnt-regulated progenitor cells in liver and pancreas homeostasis
Roel NUSSE, Stanford University, United States
Host: Lim Xinhong, IMB
17:00 - 18:00 Networking (F&B supported by SCSS)
16:00 – 17:00 Wnt-regulated progenitor cells in liver and pancreas homeostasis
Roel NUSSE, Stanford University, United States
Host: Lim Xinhong, IMB
17:00 - 18:00 Networking (F&B supported by SCSS)
Admission is FREE and event is open to public but registration is required.
Seats are limited!
Seats are limited!
The SPEAKER
Roel NUSSE
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Department of Developmental Biology, US
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Department of Developmental Biology, US
ABSTRACT
Wnt-regulated progenitor cells in liver and pancreas homeostasis
Our laboratory is interested in the growth, development and integrity of animal tissues, with a focus on stem cells. Wnt signaling is widely implicated in stem cell control, as a mechanism to regulate the number of stem cells in tissues, Using various cell labeling and lineage tracing methods, we have described novel populations of stem cells in various tissues, including in the liver and the pancreas. In that tissue, we found that hepatocytes that reside in the pericentral domain of the liver demonstrate stem cell behavior. Although these cells are functional hepatocytes, they are diploid and thus differ from the mostly polyploid mature hepatocyte population. They are active in homeostatic cell replacement and therefore distinct from oval cells, which require injury for their induction. Adjacent central vein endothelial cells provide the essential source of Wnt signals for the hepatocyte stem cells and thereby constitute the liver stem cell niche. Attempts to expand these cells in vitro are under way.
It is noteworthy that liver cancer is often characterized by loss of function mutations in negative components of the Wnt pathway, including Axin and APC. We suggest that pericentral hepatocyte stem cells, normally controlled by a paracrine Wnt signal, are precursors to liver cancer.
BIOSKETCH
Dr. Roel Nusse is a professor in the Department of Developmental Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, the Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is a member of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford and the Stanford Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research and Medicine. Roel Nusse received his PhD from the Netherlands Cancer Institute at the University of Amsterdam in 1980. He completed postdoctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco in 1982 working with Dr. Harold Varmus. After several years as head of the molecular biology department at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, he returned to the Bay Area and joined the Stanford medical faculty in 1990 as an associate professor of developmental biology. In 1994 he was promoted to professor. In 1999 he was appointed as chair of the department of Developmental Biology at Stanford. In 2010, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Roel Nusse is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. Recently (2017), he received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
Wnt-regulated progenitor cells in liver and pancreas homeostasis
Our laboratory is interested in the growth, development and integrity of animal tissues, with a focus on stem cells. Wnt signaling is widely implicated in stem cell control, as a mechanism to regulate the number of stem cells in tissues, Using various cell labeling and lineage tracing methods, we have described novel populations of stem cells in various tissues, including in the liver and the pancreas. In that tissue, we found that hepatocytes that reside in the pericentral domain of the liver demonstrate stem cell behavior. Although these cells are functional hepatocytes, they are diploid and thus differ from the mostly polyploid mature hepatocyte population. They are active in homeostatic cell replacement and therefore distinct from oval cells, which require injury for their induction. Adjacent central vein endothelial cells provide the essential source of Wnt signals for the hepatocyte stem cells and thereby constitute the liver stem cell niche. Attempts to expand these cells in vitro are under way.
It is noteworthy that liver cancer is often characterized by loss of function mutations in negative components of the Wnt pathway, including Axin and APC. We suggest that pericentral hepatocyte stem cells, normally controlled by a paracrine Wnt signal, are precursors to liver cancer.
BIOSKETCH
Dr. Roel Nusse is a professor in the Department of Developmental Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, the Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is a member of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford and the Stanford Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research and Medicine. Roel Nusse received his PhD from the Netherlands Cancer Institute at the University of Amsterdam in 1980. He completed postdoctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco in 1982 working with Dr. Harold Varmus. After several years as head of the molecular biology department at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, he returned to the Bay Area and joined the Stanford medical faculty in 1990 as an associate professor of developmental biology. In 1994 he was promoted to professor. In 1999 he was appointed as chair of the department of Developmental Biology at Stanford. In 2010, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Roel Nusse is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. Recently (2017), he received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.