The main research interest of my laboratory focuses on the understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying self-renewal, migration and differentiation of normal and cancer stem cells. Stem cells yield promise for regenerative medicine but also pose huge challenges. It remains uncertain how to inhibit stem-cell-derived tumor formation without harming normal stem cells. It is likewise unclear how directional stem cell migration, a critical step in tissue regeneration, is orchestrated. Using newly-established or previously-unexplored stem cell models in Drosophila, we employ a convergence of fly genetics, cell biology, biochemistry and in vivo imaging to investigate a few fundamental questions: 1) How normal stem cells within a specific tissue are maintained and how to distinguish normal from cancer stem cells? 2) During normal development and upon tissue injury, how guidance cues may be converted into physical movement of stem cells in a timely and directional manner? Since the fundamental principles we will unravel using relatively simple Drosophila stem cell models are likely to be highly conserved in human, knowledge obtained from our studies should provide new insight into novel strategies for anti-cancer therapy and tissue regeneration.
我们实验室致力于研究正常干细胞和癌症干细胞的自我复制，迁移及分化的细胞分子机制。干细胞就像一柄双刃剑：一方面，干细胞的有效利用为再生医学提供了希望；另一方面，干细胞调控的紊乱可导致癌症等多种人类疾病。由于正常干细胞和癌症干细胞极为相似，如何特异性得去除癌症干细胞从而达到抑制肿瘤发生的目的，同时又不损伤正常干细胞是干细胞及癌症领域一个极大的挑战。组织损伤后，干细胞如何被诱导，迁移至伤口处并及时分化成正确的体细胞以达到组织修复的效果是再生医学一个重大的问题。我们利用新颖的研究干细胞致瘤及干细胞迁移的果蝇模型，并结合遗传学，细胞生物学，生化及体内动态成像等多种手段研究以下几个问题：1) 正常干细胞在其组织或器官中是如何被长期维持的？正常干细胞和癌症干细胞在自我复制，迁移及分化等方面有何本质区别？2) 在发育过程中及组织损伤后，干细胞是如何感知信号并进行有方向性，实效性的迁移行为的？诱导因子是什么？信号是如何被长距离传导的？由于我们在相对简单的果蝇干细胞模型中发现的细胞分子机制很可能是非常保守的，我们的研究结果将为人类癌症防治和组织再生提供重要的理论基础。
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