Seminars and Events

Past Events

Category Seminar
Date and Time 2015-04-13 16:00 - 17:00
Venue Seminar Room A7F
Speaker Munemasa Mori
Affiliation Department of Medicine, Pulmonary Allergy Critical Care, Columbia University Medical Center
Title Transition zone: The dramatic change of lung progenitors to terminally differentiated cells
Poster click here to download(PDF)
Host Mitsuru Morimoto
Summary During organogenesis and tissue regeneration, progenitor cells undergo a transition from a stem-like state to a committed cell fate to initiate their differentiation.
In the respiratory epithelium, these cells occupy a parabasal position in between the basal and luminal cells. This region is broader in human airways than in mice and changes have been associated with human conditions such as COPD. An in depth analysis of the cells in this unique zone can provide insights into the mechanisms that control the progenitor pools and commitment during homeostasis and repair. Pseudostratified airways are composed of basal cells lining the basement membrane, and luminal cells such as multiciliated and secretory cells.
During the process of airway repair in adult mice lungs, basal and secretory cells can self-renew and specify to other types of cells as airway progenitors, while multiciliated cells are terminally differentiated. Little is known
about the nature of suprabasal cells, and how airway progenitors expand and transition to parabasal cells, and eventually to the terminally
differentiated cells. Here we will provide novel evidence and topics related to these questions.


Mori M et al., Notch3-Jagged signaling controls the pool of undifferentiated airway progenitors. Development. 2015 Jan 15;142(2):258-67.
Mahoney EJ, Mori M et al., The hippo pathway effector Yap controls
patterning and differentiation of airway epithelial progenitors. Dev Cell.
2014 Jul 28;30(2):137-50.
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