Project description
Unravelling neural stem cell plasticity
Stem cells (SCs) are essential for tissue renewal and regeneration in the adult organism. They have the unique ability to self-renew as well as differentiate into the tissue cell types. The ERC-funded NSC-PLAS project focuses on neural SCs (NSCs) and the remarkable plasticity they exhibit. The research team is interested in delineating the molecular basis of NSC plasticity by studying epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, molecular regulation of quiescence and cell cycle in NSCs as well as immune system evasion. Collectively, project findings will advance understanding of NSC behaviour and glioma biology, opening avenues towards new treatments.
Objective
Somatic stem cells (SCs) sustain tissue renewal and regeneration in adult mammals. The maintenance of their stemness and long-lasting preservation in cohabitation with differentiated progeny at specific niches poses these cells to a considerable challenge. To deal with it, SCs display a complex network of yet to be fully uncovered mechanisms that allow multilevel plasticity. Cellular plasticity indicates the ability of cells to reversibly change their phenotype in response to the microenvironment. In the subependymal zone of the adult rodent brain, self-renewing neural SCs (NSCs) generate new neurons for pre-existing olfactory circuits. It is clear that NSCs must be endowed with plasticity properties, but the analysis of these potential traits needs a precise definition and a combination of comprehensive approaches to unravel their molecular regulation. Building from our new technologies and some preliminary data, in this proposal we will try to advance in the molecular basis and extent of the cell plasticity repertoire of adult subependymal NSCs by concentrating in three of its potential forms:
Epithelial plasticity, or the ability to dynamically and reversibly undergo epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions, a form of cell adaptation that has never been conceptually proposed or evaluated in adult NSCs.
Cycling plasticity, or the ability to move in and out of the cell cycle and remain quiescent for long periods of time. This plasticity clearly exists, but its molecular regulation remains largely elusive.
Immune plasticity, or the capacity to evade adaptive immunity. Our view about immunity in the brain has dramatically changed in the last few years, raising interest in its potential interaction with NSCs.
Understanding cell plasticity traits in NSCs may contribute to understand not only NSC and/or SC behavior, but also glioma biology and to identify pathways to intervene in brain tumor treatment.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cells
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologymammalogy
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
46010 Valencia
Spain