Our main focus is to understand the state of pluripotency of stem cells. How gene regulatory network is stabilized by external and internal signals? What makes the decision between proliferation and differentiation? We address these questions using different models of pluripotent stem cells.
Impact
Human pluripotent stem cells hold promise for regenerative medicine because of their potential to generate any given cell type of the human body and maintenance of unlimited expansion in the culture. Most reNEW research teams ulititze human pluripotent stem cells as a source to generate desirable cell types, which specialize step by step to turn into various organs.
reNEW research
Brickman’s group from reNEW UCPH has developed several fluorescent reporter systems that allow specific cell types to be labelled, facilitating cell isolation for downstream applications including organ regeneration, disease modelling, and drug testing.
Image description
Human pluripotent stem cells come together to form a cluster while keeping their own identities (labelled with different fluorescent markers before clustering).
Credits
Yan Fung Wong, Brickman’s Lab, UCPH