Tursun Lab
Gene Regulation and Cell Fate Decision in C. elegans
Profile
Understanding mechanisms which safeguard cellular identities is key to improving the reprogramming of differentiated cells.
Lab website: Tursunlab.org
Understanding the mechanisms that safeguard cellular identities is key to improving cell fate reprogramming and has great biological and medical importance for prospective tissue replacement therapies.
We are using the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a powerful genetic model organism to study cellular reprogramming. The mission of our lab is to genetically identify and characterize factors that form a barrier for transcription factor-induced cellular reprogramming. Building on successful validation of chromatin regulators acting as reprogramming barriers in C. elegans as well as Human, we continue to study whether more of our newly identified factors have conserved functions.
Strikingly, a number of our identified barrier factors are implicated in Aging regulation suggesting a link between safeguarding cell fates, cellular homeostasis and the control of lifespan.
Based on the large number of homologous genes among C. elegans and Humans our research reveals conserved mechanisms that act as barriers to cellular reprogramming and play important roles during Aging and tissue homeostasis.
To learn more about the Tursun Research Group please visit our lab website: Tursunlab.org
